Confirmed Pathogen-Free Expression

Many Absolute Antibody customers are rightly worried about pathogen contamination of their antibodies. To address those concerns, we are glad to confirm our master HEK293 and CHO cell lines are negative for more than 50 common rodent and human pathogens. This means all the recombinant antibodies we manufacture for our reagents catalog and custom services are free of these common pathogens.

Our recombinant antibody production process. The master cell lines used in our transient transfection platform have been confirmed to be free of common pathogens.

Pathogen contamination of biologicals poses a big danger to the health and welfare of animals used for in vivo studies. Outbreaks of diseases in rodent colonies have been linked to a number of sources, including cells, serum and antibodies (Peterson, 2008 and Labelle et al, 2009). Likewise, in vitro assays can be affected and skewed owing to the presence of pathogens.

Purification of antibody products has the potential to reduce pathogen load, but it is generally recommended that cell lines are tested for pathogens (Peterson, 2008). Testing every antibody-producing hybridoma, however, is a costly endeavor for most suppliers. As a result, comprehensive pathogen testing is typically only available for a subset of products, restricting the breadth of products available to researchers conscious of the dangers of pathogen contamination.

At Absolute Antibody, we use a transient transfection platform for all antibody production, which means we use a master cell line with limited passage numbers for expression. By confirming our HEK293 and CHO master cell lines are pathogen-free, we are confirming that all Absolute Antibody antibodies are available pathogen free, not just a small selection. This applies to all catalog antibodies, as well as those manufactured for clients of our HEXpress™, CHXpress™ and FleXpress™ antibody expression services.

Our master cell lines were comprehensively tested and shown to be negative for human, mouse and rat pathogens by IDEXX Bioanalytics. Pathogens tested for include: AAV, B19, BKPyV, Corynebacterium bovis, Corynebacterium sp. (HAC2), EBV, Ectromelia, EDIM, H1, HAdV, Hantaan, HCMV, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HFV, HHV 6, HHV 8, HHV7, HIV1, HIV2, HPV16, HPV18, HSV 1, HSV 2, HTLV 1, HTLV 2, JCPyV, K virus, KRV, LCMV, LDEV, MAV1, MAV2, mCMV, MCPyV, MHV, MNV, Mouse kidney parvovirus (MKPV), MPV, MTV, MVM, Mycoplasma pulmonis, Mycoplasma sp., Polyoma, PVM, rCMV, RCV/SDAV, REO3, RMV, RPV, RTV, Sendai, Seoul, Sin Nombre, SV40, TMEV, Treponema pallidum and VZV.

The team here at Absolute Antibody is committed to delivering the highest quality recombinant antibodies for the research and diagnostics markets. Other steps we take to ensure the purity of our products include:

All antibodies are expressed in a chemically defined, serum-free mammalian expression system, eliminating contamination from serum components.
No animals are housed on the premises of Absolute Antibody, reducing the risk of animal-derived contamination.
We conduct endotoxin testing for both our catalog and custom products. Standard catalog antibodies and our HEXpress™ Silver service guarantee endotoxin levels of < 1EU/mg. Our VivopureX™ catalog antibodies and HEXpress™ Gold service guarantee endotoxin levels of <0.5 EU/mg.

Please contact us with any questions or to place an antibody order. The pathogen results report is available to view upon request.