Dear collegues
I have been performing lately a research about the concentration of one of the interleukins and its soluble receptor in an autoimmune disease. I have noticed that the concentration of soluble receptor was substantially higher than the interleukin itself.
Can this be possible or most probably it is an assay error?
Many thanks in advance
I wouldn't say "assay error", but there are certainly relevant "assay characteristics". For example you could ask: Does your assay detect only free interleukin, or does it also detect interleukin bound to soluble receptor (perhaps at reduced intensity)? Does your receptor assay only detect free receptor, or also receptor that has interleukin bound (again perhaps at reduced intensity)? What is the stoichiometry of receptor to interleukin binding, and what's the molecular weight ratio? Could there be any other binding proteins floating around in your sample that prevent you from detecting the interleukin? You can test all of these these experimentally. I think it will be necessary to make sense of whatever numbers the assay spits out.
All that said, I don't think it's an impossible result. It might just mean that your cytokine completely inactivated.
I agree with John. It is also important to consider the interleukin in question and its regulation. Rather, it is an outcome that could be given and be logical.
- Badges
- Science topic