Polyvalent strain-specific alloantisera as tools for routine genetic quality control of inbred and congenic strains of rats and mice

Abstract

SummaryStrain-specific polyvalent alloantisera may be obtained by injecting lymphocytes pooled from several different strains into an inbred recipient. 6 sera ofthis type were produced in rats and 23 in mice. A dye-exclusion microcytotoxic test was used to evaluate the strain specificity of such sera. A total of 663 out of 713 (93.0%) of the tests conformed with expectation, but there were 48 (6· 7%) false negative results in which the test failed to detect non-authentic animals. There were also 2 (0·3%) false positive results, in which authentic animals were shown as non-authentic. These were attributed to technical errors. Most false negative results occurred when serum and test cell suspensions matched at the major histocompatibility complex.It was concluded that the use of strain-specific polyvalent immune sera, coupled with a simple immunological test such as the microcytotoxic test, offers a sensitive and quick new method for routine genetic quality control.

Genetic monitoring of rat strains using monoclonal antibodies specific for polymorphic class I and class II MHC antigens

“…Current techniques of genetic monitoring using polyvalent alloantisera (Festing & Totman, 1980) and serological methods based on conventional antisera both require the preparation of mono or oligospecific alloantisera, which is time consuming and sometimes requires rat strains that are not readily available.…”

Genetic monitoring of inbred strains of mice using monoclonal antibodies to major histocompatibility haplotypes and lymphocyte alloantigens

“…Current techniques of genetic monitoring using polyvalent alloantisera (Festing & Totman, 1980) and serological methods based on loci controlling cell membrane alloantigens require the preparation of monospecific or oligospecific alloantisera, which is time consuming and sometimes requires mouse and rat strains that are not readily available.…”

“…The genetic monitoring of rodent colonies demands the use of immunological and biochemical techniques (Groen, 1977;Hoffman, 1978;Festing & Totman, 1980). Many of these are costly, technically complicated and time consuming.…”

NIH/Ola: a highly productive inbred strain of laboratory mouse

“…H-2 typing has been carried out using polyvalent immune serum (Festing & Totman, 1980) and oligospecific antisera to various H-2 determinants.…”

“…Samples of mice have been monitored at least every 6 months for genetic authenticity using biochemical, immunological (Festing & Totman, 1980) and morphological (Festing, 1972) methods. Histocompatibility was checked using the tail-skin grafting technique of Bailey & Usama (1960).…”