Immunoblotting with monoclonal antibodies: importance of the blocking solution

Four commonly used blocking agents, i.e., fetal calf serum, mammalian gelatin-Nonidet-P40, fish gelatin-Nonidet-P40, and defatted powdered milk were compared with respect to their efficiency to block the nonspecific background and to promote maximal immunoreactivity of monoclonal antibodies against human intestinal sucrase-isomaltase during immunoblotting. Two of five monoclonal antibodies were found to react with the electroblotted enzyme. However, one of the reacting antibodies gave optimal results with fish gelatin-Nonidet-P40 and the other with defatted powdered milk, while fetal calf serum lead to unacceptably high backgrounds. The results suggest that some of the difficulties encountered with monoclonal antibodies in immunoblotting may be due to inappropriate blocking conditions.