Flow Cytometric Evaluation of Different Monoclonal Antibody Clones against Rabbit Leukocytes

Many techniques are described to correctly identify rabbit leukocytes. Both automatic and manual counts are used for this purpose of identifying different subsets of rabbit white blood cells. However, other techniques such as Flow Cytometry are used in veterinary medicine to identify different surface and intracellular antigens of cells in a short period of time and with high accuracy. Antibodies are needed when a flow cytometric analysis takes place and it is mandatory that these antibodies react with the cells of the species of interest. Antibodies should always be chosen carefully in order to have the best performance when their use is predicted, especially when taking into consideration their species specificity. However, antibodies reacting to a specific species can react also to other species. To prove this statement, antibodies have to be tested in order to define and confirm their reactivity to other species. In this study thirty-three peripheral blood samples from healthy rabbits were collected and tested for the following antibodies: CD21 (Clone: LT21), CD5 (Clone: YKIX322.3), CD4 (Clone: YKIX302.9), CD8 (Clone: YCATE55.9), CD11b (Clone: M1/70). All antibodies report different species reactivity from rabbits. Results showed t hat only CD11b reacts with rabbit myeloid cells showing satisfactory results. The clone used in this study showed higher performance on monocytes compared to granulocytes. However, further studies with a higher caseload are warranted to confirm the results.