Comparison of PrP transcription and translation in two murine myeloma cell lines

The generation of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to the prion protein, PrP, is important in order to establish a large repertoire of useful reagents for the diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), or prion diseases. However, the presence of PrP on the surface of all mammalian cells (PrP^C) causes self-recognition, thereby restricting the ability of mice to produce an immune response to the PrP immunogen. Although this problem has been alleviated with the generation and use of PrP-knockout mice, the production of MAbs has continued to be severely hampered presumably since the fusion partner for spleen-derived lymphocytes was PrP^C-containing myeloma cell lines. The availability of a mouse myeloma cell line expressing little or no PrP^C on the surface would therefore be useful for MAb generation. Our data indicate that cells differ in their levels of PrP^C expression and suggest that not all murine myeloma cell lines are equally useful for obtaining hybridomas secreting anti-PrP MAbs.