Introduction to the Purification of Antibodies

Antibodies are a powerful and essential tool in scientific laboratories being used in an array of applications such as immuno-histochemistry, immunobloting, immunoprecipitation and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). The different sources for antibodies include polyclonal antisera from immunized animals and monoclonal antibodies from cells in culture or from ascites in animals. Both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies have their advantages, and or disadvantages, but in general the production of monoclonal antibodies is more time consuming and requires tissue culture facilities and skills. The use of either monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies in some of the applications may require that the antibody is in a purified form. They can be purified by a variety of methods described in the next few chapters. The availability of commercially available kits primarily designed for the purification of IgG and IgM classes of antibodies derived from all common animal species should also be mentioned.