Antibody diffusion

Saltzman W.M., Radomsky M.L., Whaley K.J. and Cone R.A. (1994) Antibody diffusion in human cervical mucus. Biophys J 66, 508-515... 

Fucose was tested as an inhibitor for both types of antibodies by the micro-inhibition test. These results are presented in Fig. 16. The center well of plate A contains native anti-fucose antibodies, with the native antibodies diffusing against decreasing concentrations (20 to 1 jug) of Fuc-BSA in the outer wells (1 to 6). The anti-fucose antibody yielded precipitin bands with 4 concentrations of antigen. Antibodies incubated with L-fucose (plate B) yielded a precipitin complex only at the highest concentration of antigen. A calculation from the concentrations shows that the L-fucose... 

Figure 8-18. Intact (a) and exploded (b) views of a disposable micro-Ouchterlony plate. The components include, from bottom to top, (1) a base unit containing a small circular channel into which water is placed to preserve a moist atmosphere during incubation (arrow) (2) agarose through which the antigen and antibody diffuse (3) a plastic center-piece containing the sample reservoirs (4) a moisture seal to prevent the cells from drying out during storage and (5) a cap for the entire cell. (Courtesy of Cordis Laboratories, Miami, Fla.)...

While convenient, these terms are not quite satisfactory, as none of the reagents ever escapes diffusion. In the latter case, the reagents have to diffuse toward one another to attain the conditions favorable for pfecip-itation (usually in the intermediate layer). In the former case, the conditions are most frequently such that the antigen(s), with concentrations in sufficient excess compared to that of the corresponding antibodies, diffuse into the layer containing the antibodies. 

Distinction between SCC and thymic carcinoma is also occasionally required. CD5 can be diffusely and strongly positive in primary thymic carcinoma and nonreactive in esophageal SCCs. Importantly, selective CD5 reactivity of thymic carcinomas is highly dependent on the pTI of the antigen retrieval solution and the antibody clone. Some CD5 antibodies diffusely and strongly stain both thymic carcinomas and esophageal squamous carcinomas. 79... 

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