Polyclonal antibody, advantages/disadvantages

Although both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies have been effectively used in immunochemical assays, only the latter can provide the high specificity required in some applications. Antibody specificity, on the other hand, is both a major advantage and disadvantage for immunochemical methods. It allows for highly selective detection of analytes but at the same time may complicate the development of multiresidue methods. Moreover, production of monoclonal antibodies requires special expertise and it is much more expensive than polyclonal antibodies. Thus, in cases where a range of analytes similar in molecular structure are required to be determined, a polyclonal may be more suitable than a monoclonal antibody. 

Both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies have proven to be very effective in a number of different biological applications, but there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to employing each type of antibody for a particular study. First, polyclonal antibodies are generally more stable than mono-... 

Advantages of polyclonal antibodies over monoclonal antibodies are as follows (a) They are highly reactive due to the binding of multiple epitopes on the same antigen and (b) they are easy to produce. The disadvantage of polyclonal antibodies as compared to monoclonal antibodies is that they often have a lower degree of specificity (i.e., will bind antigens that are not of interest). 

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. 

TABLE 18.10. Advantages and Disadvantages of Monoclonal Antibodies Compared to Polyclonal Antisera... 

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