Until recently, antibodies have been either rabbit polyclonals or mouse monoclonals. The polyclonal antibodies from rabbits have the advantage of sensitivity, but batch-to-batch variability and non-specific staining have been problems. To some extent, this has been addressed by raising rabbit polyclonal antibodies to short polypeptide sequences. Monoclonal antibodies from mice confer greater specificity, but the immunoreactivity of mice to some immunogens is weak. The successful production of monoclonal antibodies from rabbit hybridomas has had to await the development of c-myc/v-abl transgenic rabbits1. This now offers the promise of monoclonal antibodies with both hihg specificity and high sensitivity. The range of rabbit monoclonal antibodies afailalbe no includes those agaisnt oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, cyclin D1, Ki-67, CD3, CD5, CD23 and synaptophysin: the increased sensitivty appears to be achived without loss of specificity, even without antigen retrieval2.
References
1 Leong AS, Leong TY. Newer developments in immunohistology. J Clin Pathol 2006; 59:1117-26