HIT: a new versatile protein array platform for multi-analyte phenotyping of surface molecules

We have developed a multi-analyte fluid-phase protein array technology termed high-throughput immunophenotyping using transcription (HIT). This method employs a panel of monoclonal antibodies, each tagged with a unique oligonucleotide sequence that serves as a molecular barcode. After staining a sample, T7 polymerase amplifies the tags which are then hybridized to a DNA microarray for indirect measurement of each analyte. Here we screened 90 antibodies directed against a panel of cell surface markers as well as 4 isotype controls to compare resting human naive CD4+ T cells versus CD4+ T cells activated for 48 h with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 coated beads. Keywords: protein profiling, response to stimulus Two-condition experiment, activated versus resting cells. Biological replicates: 3 normal human donors, each donor served as an internal control. One replicate per array. One of the biological replicates was performed as a dye-swap to monitor dye-bias. We also performed a self-self comparison between activated cells from two different donors.