The VeriKine Mouse IFN-α ELISA kit has been developed to quantitate levels of IFN-α in cell/tissue culture media (10% FBS) using a sandwich immunoassay. The quantitation of mouse interferon alpha in serum and plasma samples using this product has not been fully evaluated by PBL. The kit is based on an ELISA with anti-detection antibody conjugated to horseradish per-oxidase (HRP). Tetramethyl-benzidine (TMB) is the substrate. The kit contains all reagents required to perform either 1 x or 5 x 96-well plates. The assay is based on the international reference standard for mouse interferon alpha (Mu-IFN-α) provided by the National Institutes of Health. Typical standard curves for each lot are included with the procedure. It is important with this kit and any ELISA kit to run the standard curve in the same matrix as your samples unless you have demonstrated that the matrix does not affect the signal.

Interferons (IFNs) are a group of cytokines which exhibit pleitropic activities that play major roles in both innate and adaptive immunity. Type I IFNs consist of multiple IFN-α genes and at least one IFN-β gene in most vertebrates, and a few other family members such as limitin in the mouse. There are 14 IFN-α subtypes in the mouse which share at least 75% identity in protein sequence. In the human, IFN-α is used to treat viral diseases and cancer and is studied in mouse models of these diseases. Recent evidence has suggested that IFN-α may play a role in development of certain autoimmune diseases and that treatment with IFN-α is useful for other autoimmune diseases.

The expression of interferons is regulated by a group of interferon regulatory factor proteins (IRF). The expression of the individual IFN-α subtypes is regulated by the cellular levels of IRF3 and IRF7. Most of the IFN-α subtypes require IRF7 for expression. IRF7 is constitutively expressed in some cell types and is inducible in others. Inducible IRF7 expression is induced by IFN-β and IFN-α4 in mice and leads to expression of the other IFN-α subtypes. Murine IFN-β may be required for the production of IFN-α by fibroblasts but may not be required for IFN-α production by other cells. The IRF3/IRF7 signaling cascade is important for the initial and progressive responses to pathogens wherein hundreds of genes are regulated in a coordinated, temporal manner.

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells are the major producers of IFN-α, but a large variety of cells can also produce lower levels of these proteins. The particular subtypes that are expressed appear to be somewhat cell and stimulus specific