Generation of Human Monoclonal Autoantibody-Producing Cell Lines by Epstein-Barr Virus Transformation of Autoreactive B Lymphocytes and by Somatic Cell Hybridization Techniques: Application to the Analysis of the Autoimmune B Cell Repertoire.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was used to immortalize human peripheral B lymphocytes committed to the production of autoantibodies in healthy subjects and in patients with various autoimmune diseases. EBV-transformed B lymphocytes producing human monoclonal autoantibodies were fused with the human-mouse heterohybridoma F3B6 cells to stabilize the production of monoclonal antibodies (mAb). The present method of generating human B cell clones producing mAbs now makes it possible to analyze in detail the nature of human autoantibodies with respect to antigen-binding specificity, affinity, corresponding autoepitopes, and the variable (V) region structure.