Monoclonal Abs - 2
•Definition:
•emonoclonal antibodies are antibodies that possess a single specificity (idiotype) for a specific antigenic determinant (epitope)
•Alternative name:
•ehomogeneous antibodies
•Techniques used to produce monoclonal antibodies:
•esomatic cell hybridization (cell fusion)
•erecombinant DNA technique
•Principle of monoclonal production by somatic cell hybridization:
•emonoclonal antibody production is based on the fact that each member of a B lymphocyte clone (daughter cells) will express the same idiotype throughout their life span thus maintaining the identical epitope specificity