Saturday, August 2, 2014

Factors To Consider When Buying ELISA Test Kits

By Annabelle Holman


Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay is a procedure in biochemistry that is utilized to determine whether there are antibodies or antigens in a sample. For several years this procedure has been used as a tool for diagnosis in medicine and pathology. There are ELISA test kits that are meant to use for fertility, cancer, steroid, allergies, parasitology, diabetes, thyroid as well infectious and autoimmune diseases.

Before purchasing ELISA kits you need to ensure they meet some requirements. You need to get the right assay format. It is essential to have the correct container system as well as the best format for your experiment. There are quite a number of formats that you can choose to work with on your project.

One of the most common formats is referred to as sandwich assay. It is named so because there are two different antibodies that sandwich the antigen. This format is popular because it is robust and sensitive. There are many times when this format is not appropriate especially if the antigen is small. It is difficult to attach antibodies which are bulky to a small antigen.

The type of antibodies you are working with are also put into consideration. In ELISAs you can use both monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. There are cases that call for a combination of both. When choosing antibodies there are several factors to look at. For capture it is advisable to use the polyclonal antibodies and the monoclonal antibodies for the detection process. If you follow this tip you should be able to capture all the antigens and then use monoclonal antibodies to identify some specific antigens.

You have to verify that the detection and capture antibodies are a match. The two ought not to vie for the same site on the antigen. Rather they ought to perceive different antigen epitopes. The results will have errors in the event that you do not guarantee zero interference. There are methods for guaranteeing this does not occur. The most suggested path is to purchase pairs that are matched from the supplier. You can utilize the web to discover good suppliers.

Cross reactivity as well as interference is another feature to look for. Cross reactivity can be caused by antibodies that are on the host animal being compatible. It is not hard to purchase antibodies that are obtained from the animal in question. However, consider it important to find out if cross reactivity might pose a problem. In the sandwich format the secondary antibody that is utilized for the detection process must be right for the primary antibody that was utilized during detection.

It is also important to figure out what is in the blocking as well as the washing buffers. Sometimes they may contain compounds that are likely to alter interaction of the antibodies and the antigens. The final factor to consider is detection. There are several ways of detecting binding. You need to find a kit that utilizes detection that you prefer.

If you want to know more about these features you can request details from representatives from the companies that sell the kits. They will be glad to inform you more about them and how to use them. The internet is also a source of information.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment