Monoclonal antibodies are greatly acknowledged for their outstanding performance as both diagnostic and therapeutic tools for various diseases. Production of small quantities of less than 0.1 g of purified MAbs is often adequate to meet the needs of many research projects (Liew et al., 2021). Lab-scale production of MAbs can be conducted either in vivo or in vitro. In vivo MAbs production is induced by injecting the hybridoma cells into the peritoneal cavity of mice where they would grow quickly as abdominal tumor, secreting MAbs in ascitic fluid. However, there is likely to be a problem of batch-to-batch variations between animals as well as contamination of the products by non-specific murine immunoglobulin and murine viruses from the host (van der Valk et al., 2018). In vitro culture of hybridoma cells in a closed system, is the alternative approach for scaling up of MAbs production, where MAbs secreted in culture medium are harvested and purified. The advantages of the in vitro system are its easy performance, relatively low costs, and short production time (Carvalho et al., 2017).

The cultivation of hybridomas secreting monoclonal antibodies involves the use of media supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS). However, the use of FBS is increasingly criticized for scientific, technical, as well as ethical reasons (Giammarioli et al., 2015, Vojgani et al., 2017). The cultivation of the hybridoma cells in media not enriched by serum has the advantage of providing MAbs with a high degree of purity with consequent reduction of non-specific reactions in diagnostic tests (Manna et al., 2015; Chabaud et al., 2016).

An anti S. mansoni hybridoma cell line (7A 8F), produced in the monoclonal antibody production unit at the Theodor Bilharz Research Institute (TBRI), Egypt, was chosen for this study. The 7A 8F MAb is of IgG1 k type, recognizing a repetitive epitope present on the soluble egg antigen (SEA). This MAb was employed as both antigen capturing and detecting in sandwich ELISA for circulating Schistosoma antigen (CSA) detection. This study was designed to assess the effect of two serum independent media, i.e.; serum free medium (SFM), and chemically defined medium (CDM), versus serum based medium (SBM), on the growth rate, monoclonal antibody productivity, and diagnostic efficiency of the 7A 8F hybridoma cells.