Clone (B-cell biology)

Clonality (from gr κλών, branch, womb ) is a term that describes the lineage of cells or their products. Go all the cells of a population back to a single common mother cell, then one speaks of a monoclonal (or simply clonal ) population. If genetic differences are present and the population is thus due to several cell lines, one speaks against it from a polyclonal population, with only a few cell lines from an oligoclonal population.

With clonality individual cell products can be meant. Monoclonal antibodies are produced by a receding to a single B- lymphocyte cell line and thus directed all against a single epitope. In nature, however, antibodies are still produced by different cell lines and are therefore polyclonal.

It is important to determine the clonality of cells, particularly in the pathology within the Dignitätsbeurteilung of tumors, as can be inferred from clonality most directly to the dignity. About when the cells are compared and found that the genomes are the same ( eg by Southern blot analysis ) from a biopsy of a tumor of the breast with those from axillary lymph nodes, so it is assumed that the cells have the same origin, that are monoclonal and it therefore concerns malignant tumor cells ( cancer cells) that have metastasized from the breast to the lymph nodes.

• Cell Biology