Prion diseases such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) have caused a major safety concern in cell cultures using fetal calf serum (FCS). In this study, we found that screened and tested human plasma (HP) obtained from blood centers may be an ideal alternate nutrient substitute to FCS for culturing hybridoma. In addition to the inherent safety, a ten-fold increase in the fusion efficiency has been observed if the HP was used as the nutrient supplement instead of FCS. Subsequently, a broader antibody repertoire may be recovered. The HP supplement was found to promote the growth of hybridoma cells but no impact on antibody secretion. Interestingly, this effect of enrichment was only observed for HP, but not plasma from other animals. Unidentified murine hybridoma cloning factors other than IL-6 may specifically reside in human blood.
