|
Chicken antibodies have several advantages over mammalian antibodies, making them suitable for studies of platelet activation by flow cytometry [1,2].
Due to the phylogenetical difference, there are usually more epitopes on mammalian antigens recognised by chickens than by mammals. The antibodies cross-reacts for most antigens also with porcine, rat and mouse platelets.
Chicken IgY does not activate the mammalian complement system and do not react with mammalian Fc-receptors.
Immune complexes formed when a mammalian antibody reacts with the antigen an immune complex is formed that may cause complement activation and interactions with Fc-receptors. Both complement activation and Fc-receptor interactions are known to cause platelet activation.
We have previously shown that immune complexes containing mammalian antibodies cause platelet activation while immune complexes containing chicken antibodies did not cause platelet activation [3,4].
FREE Figures of hemostasis, coagulation and platelets, for educational use
|