antibody staining

[gael]

Hi,
I'm doing immunofluorescence in vitro and in vivo, and i found a new subcellular location for a protein with one antibody (which has been use in many publication). Pre-incubation with the immunogen peptide (blocking peptide) result in the loss of the signal. Overexpression of this protein in cells can be also seen. But using an other antibody shows a different pattern. Is it possible that one antibody (polyclonal) recognize two different proteins (preincubation with the peptide reveal the high affinity for my protein)?
Thanks for help.
g

[JackBean]

Sure, polyclonal antibody can recognise like everything...

[biohazard]

Well, depends on the context.

In immunology, when talking about poly- vs. monoclonal antibodies, the specificity of the antibody can be the same antigen, just the polyclonal antibody recognizes many different epitopes and monoclonal just one.

Polyclonal antibodies against a single antigen can be produced in animals and they were the main antibodies used in immunology before hybridoma technology allowed the production of epitope-specific monoclonal antibodies.

Even today, polyclonal antibodies are sometimes used, for example when it is more important to bind the antigen (e.g. if you want to neutralize/eliminate it) than is to obtain an ultra-specific outocome.