I plan to detect the neurotransmitters and proteins in the mouse brain using ELISA and western blot, these two methods all test proteins in the sample, therefore I want to know if I can use the same protein samples to perform these two assays.
Hello Kai-Lin Mao
Yes, you can use ELISA and Western Blot to detect proteins in mouse brain.
Just wanted to inform you that both these techniques of protein detection have their advantages and disadvantages.
ELISA is far more sensitive and faster than Western Blot, but it is less specific as compared to Western Blot.
The disadvantage of using ELISA is that you will miss out on certain information on your protein of interest like any size changes to your protein of interest. It won't tell you if your protein of interest shows isoforms or having multimeric forms or showing any post translational modifications. ELISA will only quantify specific protein in a mixture of proteins in cell lysates, serum, or other biological fluids as long as the epitope of the protein of interest is recognized by the antibody.
One advantage of using Western Blot is that it is less likely to give false positive results, though it is time consuming.
Best.
Dear Kai-Lin Mao ,
I am completely agree with Xi Jiang , you may use same sample for both technique. Make sure that you have done protein concentration of the sample not less than 2ug/ul.
Because you would need to load atleast 30-40 ug of protein to see a band on WB membrane, while ELISA can detect protein as low as pg/ml proteins.
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