Anti-beta(2)GP-I and anti-prothrombin antibodies generated by phage display

This chapter describes the construction and screening of a library of single-chain variable fragments (svFv) derived from patients with autoimmune disease. The methods cover the isolation of mononuclear cells from peripheral blood, preparation of RNA, and recovery of immunoglobulin-coding sequences by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Cloning into a phage display vector and screening of the scFv display library by a simple panning procedure are described. These methods are applicable to library construction from any patient group or (with alternative primer sets) any mammalian species.