Chugai Seiyaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Nobuo Kamada

Tatsuhiko Kodama

Yoshiki Yamada

Kou-ichi Jishage

Kou-Ichi Jishage

This invention provides methods for producing antibodies, wherein the methods comprise the step of administering an immunogen comprising both a target antigen and a background antigen to transgenic animals, into which a gene coding for the background antigen has been introduced. Since immunotolerance to the background antigens have thus been induced in the transgenic animals, the animals efficiently produce antibodies to target antigens.

Methods for producing antibodies

Membrane proteins that are background antigens were solubilized, and transgenic animals were produced using genes encoding these soluble proteins. Antibodies against the background antigen membrane proteins comprised in the immunogens were not found in these transgenic animals, and even when genes encoding soluble proteins were used, immunotolerance against the full-length membrane proteins could be induced. Moreover, by expressing the background antigen membrane proteins as soluble proteins inside the bodies of transgenic animals, unfavorable phenotypes that appear when the full-length membrane proteins are expressed could be avoided, and such animals were made widely available as immunized animals.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Nobuo Kamada