To get an idea about the animal welfare impact of my planned experiments and to perhaps make adjustments in the antibody selection, I was wondering:
- How many mice are sacrificed to obtain 1 mg antibody with ascites method?
- How much FCS is needed to obtain 1 mg antibody expressed in cell culture?
I assume that yields can differ by a few orders of magnitude, but it would still be interesting to know some ballpark numbers.
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul
As a rule thumb MAbs concentration produced in ascites is ranged around 1-20mg/mL of fluid. In my experience, I had clones that produce 12mgMAbs/mL of ascites. It is dependent of the specific productivity characteristic of each clone, of course mouse quality, inoculated cell quantity, time... is important too. From one mouse you can get aronud 2-10ml of ascites. therefore if you have a clone producing 5mgMAb/mL ascites only one mouse would pruduce more than 10 mg of MAb.
From cell culture you can get smaller quantities, around 0.01 - 2mg/mL (dependent of the clones too and ather conditions). The range of FCS in cell culture media is around 10-20%. so maybe you need 100ml for produce 1mg of Mab.
Regards Oscar
Hi Paul
As a rule thumb MAbs concentration produced in ascites is ranged around 1-20mg/mL of fluid. In my experience, I had clones that produce 12mgMAbs/mL of ascites. It is dependent of the specific productivity characteristic of each clone, of course mouse quality, inoculated cell quantity, time... is important too. From one mouse you can get aronud 2-10ml of ascites. therefore if you have a clone producing 5mgMAb/mL ascites only one mouse would pruduce more than 10 mg of MAb.
From cell culture you can get smaller quantities, around 0.01 - 2mg/mL (dependent of the clones too and ather conditions). The range of FCS in cell culture media is around 10-20%. so maybe you need 100ml for produce 1mg of Mab.
Regards Oscar
Antoni Iborra
Do you consider cell culture as one of the more ethical methods? I would. Because my calculations from Oscar Otero Alfaro 's response suggest you can get 1 mg antibody for 10 ml FCS (and 500 ml FCS corresponds to one calf I think). So 0.02 calf per mg antibody from cell culture, and (according to the above) 0.1 mouse for 1 mg antibody from ascites. That said, I find it hard to assess whether ascites or FCS production inflicts more suffering to the animals. Also, given the broad range of antibody yield, there might be some antibodies where the production in ascites has a lower life cost. What other more ethical methods are you thinking of? Phage display?