Antibodies to steroids from a small human naive IgM library

Human antibodies specific for digoxigenin, estradiol, testosterone and progesterone have been isolated from a small combinatorial IgM repertoire (4 x 10(7)) of single chain antibodies (scFv). The affinities of both the anti-estradiol and antiprogesterone scFv were approximately 10(8) M(-1). Naive IgM genes appeared to be highly represented, since only the heavy chain variable domain of the anti estradiol antibody contained differences to corresponding germline sequences. The light chain variable domain of the progesterone receptor was also identical to a germline sequence, showing that it is possible for completely naive antibodies to bind steroids with affinities comparable to those obtained after a secondary immune response.