Development of a quantitative cell-based intracellular ELISA for the screening of B cell hybridoma supernatants: a novel rapid assay to detect positive clones.

The primary screening of hybridoma clones secreting monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) requires the testing of a large number of hybridoma culture supernatants within a short time and is very labor-intensive. In addition, the type of antigen and its location in the cell have to be considered when selecting the appropriate screening procedure, but relatively few reagents are available for analyzing these molecules. We have developed an intracellular and cell surface ELISA technique for screening hybridoma supernatants that hastens the screening procedure of a large number of clones in a short period of time, as the supernatants of fused cells grown in 96-well plates are used directly in the assay. This novel screening technique is rapid, sensitive, specific, and applicable to MAbs specific for a wide variety of intracellular and/or cell surface proteins.