Production of antisera

Wall, SJ, Yasada, RP, Hory, F, Flagg, S, Martin, BM, Ginns, El and Wolfe, BB (1991) Production of antisera selective for Mi muscarinic receptors using fusion proteins distribution of Ml receptors in rat brain. Mol. Pharmacol. 39 643-649. 

Figure 13.1 Overview of the production of antisera for therapeutic use to induce passive immunization. Refer to text for specific details...

Vaitukaitis, L (1981) Production of antisera with small doses of immunogen multiple intradermal injections, in Methods in Enzymology, vol 73 (Langone, J J and Van Vunakis, H., eds.), Academic, New York, pp 46-52... 

The production of antisera against a cell type is one of the oldest effective methods of achieving a specific immune action. These antibodies can be divided into tw o groups polyclonal antisera that react with multiple antigenic determinants or epitopes and monoclonal antibodies that are directed at only a single epitope. 

Production of antisera does not require specialized immunological techniques and cell culture facilities. Therefore it may be a simpler, faster and cheaper way than production of monoclonal antibodies (see section 3.3.). However, it must be noted that antisera-based immunoassays are sometimes less selective than monoclonal antibody-based immunoassay because of the polyclonality of antibodies in the antisera, and good antisera are not reproduced. The production of high affinity antisera may be helped by long-term immunization schedules from the mechanism of antigen-dependent B lymphocyte differentiation and selection (23). 

A typical method for the production of antisera against digoxin is described below (22) ... 

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