ABSTRACT
Complete antibodies, containing both constant and variable regions, can only be assembled and secreted from eukaryotic cells. Several attempts have been made to produce intact immunoglobulins in bacteria (Boss et al., 1984; Cabilly et al., 1984) and, in each case, active antibody, capable of binding antigen, could only be obtained after renaturation of the heavy and light chains in vitro. This is probably because of incorrect disulfide bridge formation in the reducing environment of the bacterial cell and the accumulation of the expressed proteins in insoluble inclusion bodies.
