Antibody repertoires of four- and five-feature translocus mice carrying human immunoglobulin heavy chain and kappa and lambda light chain yeast artificial chromosomes.

We have produced mice that carry the human Ig heavy (IgH) and both kappa and lambda light chain transloci in a background in which the endogenous IgH and kappa loci have been inactivated. The B lymphocyte population in these translocus mice is restored to about one-third of normal levels, with preferential (3:1) expression of human lambda over human kappa. Human IgM is found in the serum at levels between 50 and 400 microg/ml and is elevated following immunization. This primary human Ab repertoire is sufficient to yield diverse Ag-specific responses as judged by analysis of mAbs. The use of DH and J segments is similar to that seen in human B cells, with an analogous pattern of N nucleotide insertion. Maturation of the response is accompanied by somatic hypermutation, which is particularly effective in the light chain transloci. These mice therefore allow the production of Ag-specific repertoires of both IgM,kappa and IgM,lambda Abs and should prove useful for the production of human mAbs for clinical use.