hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase
Quick Summary
The technique involves fusing certain myeloma cells (cancerous B cells), which can multiply indefinitely but cannot produce antibodies, with plasma cells (noncancerous B cells), which are short-lived but produce a desired antibody. The resulting hybrid cells, called hybridomas, grow at the rate of myeloma cells but also produce large amounts of the desired antibody. In this way researchers obtain large quantities of antibody molecules that all react against the same antigen.
The essential production steps are shown here. In step 2, HGPRT is hypoxanthineguanine phosphoribosyltransferase, an enzyme that allows cells to grow on a medium containing HAT, or hydroxanthine, aminopterin, and thymidine. As shown in step 4, only hybridomas can live in the HAT medium; unfused myeloma cells, lacking HGPRT, die in the medium, as do unfused plasma cells, which are naturally short-lived.
Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) is an enzyme crucial for purine metabolism, particularly active in brain cells. A deficiency in HGPRT causes Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a hereditary metabolic disorder. This condition affects the central nervous system, leading to symptoms like incoordination, intellectual disability, aggressive behavior, and compulsive self-biting. The syndrome is inherited through a recessive sex-linked gene, primarily affecting males, and can be detected before birth in families with a known carrier.1
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