Immunoenzymatic quantitative analysis of antigens expressed on the cell surface (cell-ELISA)

Cell-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cell-ELISA) is an useful technique for the quantitative analysis of cell surface antigen expression that was developed on the basis of enzyme immunohistochemistry (EIH) and ELISA. Since its development, which was made possible by the establishment of monoclonal antibody technology, a wide range of cell types and surface molecules were analyzed by cell-ELISA. Here we show four variants of this method and provide a brief comparison of cell-ELISA with flow cytometry (FACS) and radioimmunobinding assay (RIA), which are other methods for the quantitative detection of cell-surface molecules. We describe step-by-step procedures for both direct and indirect cell-ELISA using either adherent or nonadherent live cells.