Cloning and expression of a novel murine anti-human Fas antibody.

Agonistic anti-human Fas antibodies that can induce apoptosis are thought to have therapeutic effects for various diseases resulting from an abnormality of the Fas/FasL system. However, some anti-Fas antibodies show toxicity, and it is difficult to investigate their therapeutic and toxicological effect using animals because of their species specificity. We previously obtained a murine anti-human Fas mAb, HFE7A. HFE7A reacted with both human and murine Fas, and mitigated lymphadenopathy without any sign of hepatotoxicity in MRLgld/gld mice. It is suggested that humanized HFE7A would be a therapeutic treatment for various diseases resulting from an abnormality of the Fas/FasL system. Here we isolated the cDNAs that code for the heavy and light chains of HFE7A and identified the corresponding nucleotide sequences. The recombinant HFE7A was indistinguishable in binding and apoptosis-inducing activity to that from a hybridoma cell line. These data provide essential information for the humanization and clinical application of the humanized HFE7A.