Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are each derived from a single B cell clone, which means that every antibody within the same preparation recognizes the same epitope. They offer a wealth of advantages for scientific research, not least a high specificity for their antigenic targets. This results from the fact that each monoclonal antibody binds only one epitope, which significantly reduces the risk of off-target binding compared to using polyclonal antibodies. Other important benefits of monoclonal antibodies include their consistent experimental performance and unlimited long-term supply. When Kohler and Milstein first reported monoclonal antibodies in 1975, they described the development of hybridoma technology. This involved immunizing mice with sheep red blood cells before extracting the spleen from each animal and fusing the antibody-producing B lymphocytes with an immortal murine myeloma cell line. By incubating the cells in hypoxanthine aminopterin thymidine (HAT) medium for up to 2 weeks, it was possible to ensure that only the hybridomas survived. The culture supernatants were then screened for anti-sheep antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to identify the best-performing clones. A limitation of using mice for hybridoma production is that it prohibits the generation of antibodies to murine proteins. In addition, some proteins have only low immunogenicity in mice, which makes developing effective antibodies for certain targets difficult. For these reasons, hybridoma technology has been extended to other species including rabbits; which have a more diverse immune repertoire than mice, as well as feature larger spleens that are capable of producing more antibodies. These characteristics of rabbits make them useful for generating high affinity antibodies, including those targeting more challenging epitopes. Rabbit monoclonal antibody production follows a similar methodology to the original murine hybridoma technology. In addition, rabbit monoclonal antibodies may be produced recombinantly by introducing antibody-coding DNA into a mammalian cell line for in vitro expression. An advantage of using recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibodies is that they are not susceptible to cell line drift, which can lead to batch-to-batch variation over time. Recombinant technology also makes it easier to humanize monoclonal antibodies, ensuring they can be tolerated by the human immune system if used as therapeutic agents. Explore our range of rabbit monoclonal antibodies below and discover more, for less. Alternatively, you can explore our range of mouse monoclonal antibodies and rat monoclonal antibodies.