Quantitative and qualitative immunoelectrophoresis : general comments on principles, reagents, equipment, and...

The immunoelectrophoretic methods presented in Chapters 21 to 23 are all based on the electrophoretic migration of antigens in antibody-containing agarose and the specific immunoprecipitation of antigens with the corresponding antibodies. These methods exploit the property of immunoglobulins of remaining essentially stationary during electrophoresis at pH 8.6 (buffer pH most often used) and the property of most of the proteins to migrate in these conditions. Precipitating antibodies are required for these methods. For each antibody/antigen system, an individual precipitate is formed. The area enclosed by the precipitate is directly proportional to the concentration of antigen applied. These principles may, therefore, be used in a standardized procedure for immunological identification and quantitation of antigens and/or antibodies.