Diluted antibodies stability depends on several factors. The dilution buffer should:
- Inhibit microorganism’s growth
- Stabilize the antibody microbiologically
- Prevent proteolytic degradation
- Avoid antibody adhesion to the tube wall and ensure that the solution is distributed evenly over the tissue section
Antibody dilution buffer should also largely reduce the background in immunohistochemistry and make additional blocking step unnecessary before incubation of the primary antibody. Also, dilution buffer used in immunohistochemistry should be green colored to be easily identifiable. This seems trivial, but turns out to be very important in everyday practice.
Zytomed system delivers you an antibody diluent, which meets all these criteria: Zytomed Systems Antibody Diluent.
A tip :
In most producers, concentrated antibodies are microbiologically protected with preservatives, so degeneration by fungi, bacteria or other microorganisms is unlikely. The breakdown of antibodies by inadvertently induced proteases is more important.
Antibodies are, most of the time, preserved from the proteases by the so-called protective proteins or transport proteins present in the antibody solution. However, this protection remains limited.
For this reason, in order to avoid protease contamination, we recommend introducing only perfectly clean pipette tips into the tubes containing the concentrated antibodies. The use of sterile tips can be particularly beneficial for this purpose.
When you dilute your concentrated antibodies under optimal conditions, with an adequate dilution buffer (eg ZUC025 from Zytomed-Systems), you get ready-to-use antibody solutions, which remain stable for several months. You save yourself the frequent preparation of ready-to-use antibody solutions, avoid pipetting tiny volumes of a few microliters and also avoid possible contamination related to pipetting.
Some examples of concentrated antibodies diluted with the Zytomed Systems Diluent, ZUC025 :
| Conditioning | Reference | Supplier | Certification |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 ml | ZUC025-100 |  |
IVD, CE |
| 500 ml | ZUC025-500 | |
IVD, CE |