Antibody Engineering and Transgenic Technology in Chickens <Feature Articles : Science on Eggs and It's Utilization>

The chicken is an ideal candidate for the efficient production of valuable bioactive proteins such as antibodies, enzymes and cytokines for a wide variety of industries and experimental laboratories. The cost of breeding animals is low, each egg contains a large amount of protein, and each hen lays many eggs per year. In addition, the phylogenetic difference between chickens and mammale allows the production of antibodies against specific epitopes of conserved mammalian proteins. In order to utilize these excellent properties, we have been advancing research into antibody engirteedng and trans enic technology in chickens. We have generated numerous chicken monoclonal antibodies that recognize prion proteins (PrP) using cell fusion and phage display techniques. We have also developed chicken-human and chicken-mouse chimeric antibodies and a simple method for humanizing a chicken monoclonal antibody. Our research into tranenic chicken technology has led us to discover that chicken leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is necessary for the culture of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Furthermore, the phosphorylatibn of STAT3 by LIF is required for the maintenance of the undifferentiated state of chicken biastodermal cells (candidacy cells of chicken ES cells), as well as mouse ES cells. We have also carried out further development of chicken ES cell lines. We now aim to unite the two key technologies of antibody engineering and transgenics and would like to develop new biotechnological approaches for expanding our work with chickens