Cloning of Human IgG Fc cDNA and Expression of Whole Human Anti-HBsAg Antibody in CHO Cells.

Messenger RNA was extracted from human peripheral lymphocytes and first strand cDNA was prepared by reverse-transciption. The cDNA of Fc fragment of human IgG1 was then obtained by PCR and was cloned into the pGEM T-vector. The DNA sequences encoding signal peptides of both light and heavy chains were synthesized and cloned respectively. For construction of the light chain expression plasmid, the light chain signal sequence was linked with the light chain variable and constant regions (VL-CL) which had been cloned previously by screening of phage display libraries with HBsAg. The resulting full-lenth light chain sequence was then inserted into pcDNA3.1, a mammalian expression vector. For construction of the heavy chain expression plasmid, the heavy chain signal sequence, the variable region, the first constant region (VH-CH1, cloned previously by screening of phage display libraries with HBsAg) and Fc fragment sequence were ligated to form a full-length heavy chain ORF, which was then cloned into another mammalian expression vector, pCI-DHFR1. CHO(dhfr(-)) cells were cotransfected with the above light and heavy chain expression plasmids, and cell clones expressing human anti-HBsAg antibodies were selected by G418 and methotrexate (MTX). The recombinant human antibodies were purified with protein L affinity chromatography from the cell culture medium. As human serum IgG, the recombinant IgG exhibited only one band with a molecular weight of more than 100 kD in non-reducing SDS-PAGE in reducing SDS-PAGE, however, it turned out to be two bands of approximately 50 kD and 25 kD respectively. Western-blot analysis demonstrated that the whole IgG in the non-reducing SDS-PAGE, and the heavy chain in the reducing SDS-PAGE both reacted with goat anti-human Fc antiserum.