Dear Nageshwar,

Yes, it is possible to estimate/quantify the protein of interest in cell lysates.Most ELISA kits from R&D systems can detect proteins in cell lysates.

Hi

I totally agree with Charan. I have tried several ELISA kits from R&D and they all worked fine to measure the protein quantities in tissue lysates from different organs.  

Dear Nageshwar,

One of my experiment that I'm currently doing is the estimation of my protein of interest during primary cell culture. It is possible depending whether you have the same protein for making a standard curve purpose and suitable antibody for the detection. It is also important to understand where your protein will be mostly accumulated either in the media, extracted cell lysate or on the cell lysate itself. With proper setup and control, it is possible to estimate the protein synthesis by the cells. The initial development for your assay is important to estimate the range of protein concentration use for standard curve purpose and how much you will get from the culture/cells.

Another point to consider is the specificity of the antibody towards the protein. Will the antibody detect any form/structure/fragment of the protein or complete protein only. We have some experience where our primary antibody were able to detect the final form of the protein but not its early stage form.

Hope this will help you get some idea

Fareed Sairi gave quite an exhaustive answer! I would only add that the matrix effect of the sample may influence the assay. With this I mean that if the ELISA is not particularly sensitive or that your protein of interest not very abundant, you would use low dilutions in the assay buffer (1/5, 1/10 etc.) . If this is the case, I would have a control such as cell lysate without your protein to determine how much of aspecific signal your sample alone gives. 

I have had some issues in the past with simple in-house ELISAs, crude cell lysates and false-positives. You can try different buffers, or make the ELISA more sensitive.