Coming of Age:Anti–Cytokine Therapies

Generation of monoclonal antibodies. B-lymphocytes from immunized mice (or transgenic, “humanized” mice) are fused with myeloma cells. Subsequently, the cell producing the antibody of interest is selected. Antibodies are characterized by two Fab domains which contain the complimentarity-determining regions (CDR) that provide antigen specificity, and an Fc domain which contains the binding sites necessary for complement fixation and other functions.