An oscillating bubble chamber for laboratory scale production of monoclonal antibodies as an alternative to ascitic tumours.

A simple roller bottle was constructed to house three dialysis tubes, each with a capacity of 75 ml. Cells were grown inside the dialysis tubing, which was immersed in ordinary DMEM medium without serum supplement. Cultures of hybridomas at medium or low density (2 X 10(5) cells/ml) could be expanded directly in the dialysis tubes to attain a high cell density of the order of 10(7)/ml. Continuous gentle stirring of the cells was possible, since the design causes a bubble to oscillate along the length of each tube. The six cell lines tested all gave antibody concentrations of between 1.1 and 2.3 mg/ml at 20 days. Such an in vitro apparatus obviates the need to employ ascites production, because it is as simple or simpler than the injection of mice, and the in vitro product is very rich in antibody, whilst containing low amounts of contaminating proteins.