Growth hormone secretion in relation to plasma lactate and glucose concentrations during a maximal treadmill exercise test in horses

Veterinary Research Communications -     

Genetic diversity of selected pigmented traditional rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties from Mindanao,Philippines using agromorphological traits and simple sequence repeats markers

Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology - Philippine pigmented traditional rice varieties (TRVs) offer potential novel genes for genetic improvement. In this study, forty-three pigmented...     

Seed morphological characteristics,storage behavior,and germination pattern of Combretum indicum (L.) DeFilipps

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - Combretum indicum (L.) DeFilipps seeds have anthelmintic properties and are recognized to be medicinal; however, the array of their morphological characters,...     

Heterophile Antibodies in Horse Plasma Interfering in an Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay

Veterinary Research Communications - Borromeo, V., Berrini, A., Gaggioli, D. and Secchi, C., 2007. Heterophile antibodies in horse plasma interfering in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay....     

Monoclonal Antibody Capture Fluorometric Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Detection of Equine Growth Hormone in Plasma

Veterinary Research Communications -     

Heterophile antibody interference in a solid phase sandwich immunoassay for detection of equine growth hormone in plasma

Heterophile antibodies (HAs) present in serum recognize animal immunoglobulins and are one of the most unpredictable causes of false results in immunoassays. However, no study has yet reported their interference on the diagnostic reliability of immunochemical analyses on horse plasma. Recently, we developed a sandwich ELISA for detection of equine growth hormone (eGH) in plasma. In a pilot study to measure basal eGH levels (blood samples were drawn from 13 horses every 10 min for 1h), we noted one horse with abnormally high eGH (>100 ng/mL). We demonstrate here that this plasma eGH level was falsely elevated due to interference from HAs. The interfering antibodies were polyspecific immunoglobulins, with fairly broad species-specificity, which affected the eGH immunoassay by bridging the mouse IgG capture antibody and the rabbit IgG conjugate. This produced artificial sandwiches which led to overestimation of the eGH plasma concentration. Spiking horse plasma with pure mouse and rabbit immunoglobulins or whole plasma of several species significantly reduced but did not totally eliminate the HAs interference. Immunoglobulins and whole plasma differed in their ability to block the interference, suggesting that HAs may recognize other proteins beside immunoglobulins in animal sera. To investigate whether HAs have any implications in equine clinical practice, we decided to seek information on the incidence of HAs interference in normal animals. We collected single plasma samples from another 114 horses and we found that 5 of these had plasma HAs. Therefore, in total 6 out of the 127 horses examined (4.7%) had plasma HAs generating falsely elevated eGH measures. In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence of HAs in horse plasma interfering with an immunoassay and indicates that veterinary surgeons and diagnostic laboratory staff should be aware of this potential for interference in tests on horse plasma using monoclonal or polyclonal antibody reagents.     

Effects of growth hormone on oocyte in vitro maturation and its localization in the canine cumulus-oocyte complexes

Veterinary Research Communications -