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What are rabbit monoclonal antibodies?
Monoclonal antibodies are used as primary antibodies in research because of their high specificity for a unique epitope of an antigen, which also leads to minimal lot-to-lot variation and low non-specific cross-reactivity...
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What are rabbit monoclonal antibodies?
Monoclonal antibodies are used as primary antibodies in research because of their high specificity for a unique epitope of an antigen, which also leads to minimal lot-to-lot variation and low non-specific cross-reactivity. After the discovery of the hybridoma technique designed by Caesar Millstein and Georges Kohler to produce monoclonal antibodies in 1975, monoclonal antibodies have been conventionally developed in mice for various applications. Over the years, other new techniques have led to the emergence of monoclonal antibodies raised against rabbits, rats, and hamsters. Although mouse monoclonal antibodies have remained as the most commonly used type of monoclonal antibody, a 2015 CiteAb study observed accelerating growth in the number of researchers using rabbit monoclonal antibodies while mouse monoclonals have experienced a steady decrease in the percentage of citations.
Many researchers have been choosing rabbit monoclonal antibodies over mouse monoclonal antibodies for their high specificity, affinity, and sensitivity. BosterBio offers over 500 high quality rabbit monoclonal antibodies that have been validated for flow cytometry, IP, IF, IHC, ICC, and WB.
Why Choose Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies?
Rabbit monoclonal antibodies have been widely acknowledged for its high specificity and affinity. What enables rabbit monoclonal antibodies to be superior antibodies are the unique features of the rabbit immune system.
The rabbit immune system can produce greater antibody diversity due to the factors below.
Somatic Gene Conversion & Somatic Hypermutation
Somatic Gene Conversion & Somatic Hypermutation
Somatic gene conversion and hypermutation influence the variable regions of immunoglobulin (Ig) genes, which happen more often in rabbits than rodents. This ultimately contributes to enhancing the rabbit monoclonal antibody repertoire.
IgG Vs IgM
IgG Vs IgM
Rabbits have more IgG as an isotype compared to mice which have a higher ratio of IgM. Because IgG has better specificity than IgM, rabbits have more potential to develop specific antibodies.
CDRs (Complementarity-determining regions)
CDRs (Complementarity-determining regions)
Since rabbit CDR3 sequences are longer and more heterogeneous, more sequence variation can occur.
Lower immunodominance
Lower immunodominance
Immunodominance refers to particular epitopes being more immunogenic than other epitopes of the same antigen, which causes the immune system to mainly generate antibodies against the dominantly immunogenic epitope. The rabbit’s immune system has lower immunodominance than mouse, which allows for more antibody diversity.
Larger number of lymphocytes
Larger number of lymphocytes
Rabbits have larger spleens and other immune organs than mice, which indicates that more lymphocytes (B cells) are available for producing antibodies.
Extended period of affinity maturation
Extended period of affinity maturation
After immunization, affinity maturation can persist for a longer period of time for rabbits than mice, resulting in higher affinity and specificity for rabbit monoclonal antibodies.
Benefits of Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies
Due to the unique features of the rabbit immune system, rabbit monoclonal antibodies are capable of offering the following benefits:
High specificity & affinity
Rabbit monoclonal antibodies are effective in recognizing minor epitope variations and cleaved versions of a target protein. Furthermore, rabbit monoclonal antibodies can have extremely low equilibrium dissociation constants (KD) in the picomolar range (KD = 10-12M).
Low background noise
As rabbit monoclonal antibodies only detect a single epitope, they have a low chance of cross-reacting with other proteins. Since rabbit monoclonal antibodies also bind to the target antigen with greater affinity, they prove to have a higher signal-to-noise ratio than mouse monoclonal antibodies.
Ideal for IHC
For IHC, antibodies need to be able to identify epitopes in a background with more noise (i.e. FFPE tissues). In this case, rabbit monoclonal antibodies are an excellent choice because they can be highly sensitive while retaining specificity even in strict applications like IHC.
Good for post-translational modification (PTM) detection
The rabbit immune system can produce antibodies against small epitopes existing in small molecules, lipids, and polymers, which permit rabbit monoclonal antibodies to identify subtle changes from PTMs (e.g., phosphorylation, methylation, acetylation, sumoylation, etc.) or single amino acid substitutions.
Novel epitope recognition for human, mouse, and rat targets
In comparison to the mouse immune system, the rabbit immune system possesses reduced immunodominance and greater B-cell diversity, which enables wider epitope detection and a higher possibility of discovering unique epitopes when developing rabbit monoclonal antibodies.
Validated for Flow, IHC, WB, ICC, IF, IP
Our rabbit monoclonal antibodies have been validated for various applications including WB, IHC, ICC/IF, IP, and flow cytometry as well as common species like human, mouse, and rat.
Rabbit Monoclonal vs. Mouse Monoclonal
| Comparison | Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies | Mouse Monoclonal Antibodies |
|---|---|---|
| Antigen Detection |
|
|
| Affinity |
|
|
| Specificity | High | Medium or high |
Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody Production
The general stages of rabbit monoclonal antibody production consist of rabbit immunization, plasma cell isolation, cloning and expression, and screening and selection. The rabbit monoclonal antibodies produced from a single clone are characterized for specific applications (e.g., ELISA, WB, IHC, etc.) and the best clone is chosen for scaling up production and performing purification. Because of the expensive and time-consuming process (usually 4-6 months) of monoclonal antibody production, they are typically more expensive than polyclonal antibodies.
Immunize rabbits
Isolate rabbit spleen cells
Fuse with myeloma partner cells
Recover hybridoma cells
Screen for monospecific clones
Produce best antibodies on small scales
Characterize antibodies by application
Scale up production and purification
Custom Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies
Bosterbio provides custom antibody production and development services for rabbit and mouse monoclonal antibodies as well as rabbit polyclonal antibodies. For more details about how our service can help your research, visit our custom rabbit monoclonal antibody production service page to see service information, deliverables, and expected costs. If you have any questions about your custom rabbit monoclonal antibody project, please feel free to contact us to discuss and request a quote.
Featured Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies
Anti-FOX3/NeuN Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
SKU: M11954-1
Reactivity: Human, Mouse, Rat
Applications: IHC, WB
Anti-CD11b Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
SKU: M00144-1
Reactivity: Human, Mouse
Applications: IF, IHC, ICC, WB
Anti-Cyclin B1 Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
SKU: M00745-2
Reactivity: Human, Mouse
Applications: IF, IHC, WB
Anti-Lamin B1 Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
SKU: M02778
Reactivity: Human, Mouse, Rat
Applications: IP, IF, IHC, WB
Anti-Ubiquitin Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
SKU: M02848-3
Reactivity: Human, Mouse, Rat
Applications: IF, IHC, WB
Anti-Actin (Alpha-Actin) Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
SKU: M02014-4
Reactivity: Human, Mouse, Rat
Applications: Flow Cytometry, IP, IF, IHC, ICC, WB
Browse All Rabbit Monoclonals
Can’t find your target? Check out our custom rabbit monoclonal antibody production service and contact us for a free consultation.
Boster Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies in Research
Anti-Beta Actin Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody
In a study published in Genes, scientists used Boster’s anti-beta actin rabbit monoclonal antibody as an internal control for western blotting to investigate retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) expression in porcine granulosa cells.
Zhao, Y., Li, C., &
Zhou, X. (2019). Transcriptomic Analysis of Porcine Granulosa Cells Overexpressing Retinol Binding Protein 4. Genes, 10(8), 615. doi: 10.3390/genes10080615
Rabbit Monoclonals for Bcl2, Bax, pERK1/2, ERK1/2
Scientists investigated the role of indole-thiophene conjugate (ITC) as an inhibitor of cervical cancer cell proliferation. Using Boster’s rabbit monoclonal antibodies, the researchers studied the effects of ITC on the expression of Bcl2, Bax, pERK1/2, and ERK1/2 in HeLa cells through western blotting.
Xu, X., Ma, H., Wang, F., &
Yan, J. (2019). Indole-thiophene conjugate inhibits proliferation of human cervical cancer cell lines through DNA damage. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 18(8), 1705-1710. doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i8.20
Rabbit Monoclonals for TGF-β1, NF-κB65, Smad4, Smad3, Smad7, TNF-α, CTGF
For a research studying the molecular responses of radiation‑induced liver damage (RILD), scientists used Boster rabbit monoclonals for IHC and WB to observe expression of TGF-β1, NF-κB65, Smad4, Smad3, Smad7, TNF-α, and CTGF for immunohistochemistry and western blot analyses in rat liver tissues.
Cheng, W., Xiao, L., Ainiwaer, A., Wang, Y., Wu, G., Mao, R., … Bao, Y. (2014). Molecular responses of radiation-induced liver damage in rats. Molecular Medicine Reports, 11(4), 2592–2600. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2014.3051
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