Abstract
THE detection of humoral antibody can only be adequately assessed by using techniques which are solely dependent on the primary interaction of antigen and antibody1–5. Two such primary measures of antibody detection are the Farr technique6 and radioimmunoelectrophoresis7. Radioimmunoelectrophoresis is an extremely sensitive test which is dependent on the specific activity of the labelled antigen. It is, however, qualitative, whereas the Farr technique is a quantitative test to determine either the capacity of an antiserum to bind the antigen6 or the amount of antibody8,9 the antiserum contains. Recently, the sensitivity of the Farr technique has been questioned, especially with respect to the detection of 19S antibody10. The work reported here shows that 19S antibody can readily be detected by the Farr technique only if an appropriate concentration of antigen is used to achieve maximum sensitivity of the method.
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PINCKARD, R., McBRIDE, W. & WEIR, D. Sensitivity and Detection of 19S Antibody by the Farr Technique. Nature 215, 1084–1085 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2151084a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2151084a0
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