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CrateDane t1_j2cxa8z wrote

The body only really makes antibodies against stuff it has actually encountered. So a human would only have antibodies against animal stuff that has come into contact. Under normal circumstances that might be a bit of hair and the like, rather than more intact/living cells or their nuclei (what ANA tests for).

An ANA test on human blood will usually be ELISA and not have anything to do with animal cells. They will probably use secondary antibodies from some animal (mouse, rat, rabbit, whatever floats your goat) just to bind to and detect human antibodies. You wouldn't be mass producing those antibodies in animals though, rather you'd generate some clonal cell lines.

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menooby OP t1_j2cynkc wrote

Wait but they used to use animal cells? https://www.hopkinslupus.org/lupus-tests/lupus-blood-tests/ 'usually sections of rodent liver/kidney or human tissue culture cell lines' What I mean to say is, do human cells and rat cells share the same antigens. Thanks for replying btw

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iayork t1_j2dhheg wrote

I don’t know about ANA tests in particular, but nuclear proteins in general tend to be highly conserved (I.e. similar across a wide range of species). This makes sense because the basics of DNA replication and RNA production are virtually identical across hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Wikipedia’s article on conserved sequences notes that many of them are the “proteins required for transcription and translation, which are assumed to have been conserved from the last universal common ancestor of all life”.

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menooby OP t1_j2fuxup wrote

Really?? Interesting. Thank you

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CrateDane t1_j2d05wp wrote

That's describing immunofluorescence microscopy, a more labor-intensive way of doing it. I assume ELISA is more widely used nowadays. And they do mention the option of using human cell lines - that would be the better choice as you want to see if there are antibodies against human nuclear proteins/antigens. Animal cells will have homologous proteins/antigens which some of the antibodies would likely still recognize, but human ones would be better. In an ELISA you would just use purified human proteins/antigens.

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0oSlytho0 t1_j2deu9p wrote

Also, antibodies bind "somewhere" on their target. That target may be a specific part of one protein found in humans only, but they could be aspecific or bind a protein part wich's the same in another animal. Bioinformatics can help you for your specific antibody but wet lab testing's the way to go

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menooby OP t1_j2fv0np wrote

So it's a maybe but dk till we try

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