Isolation of specific antibody under conditions of low ionic strength

Specific rabbit and goat antibodies to tobacco mosaic virus, bovine serum albumin and human gamma globulin have been isolated by acid dissociation from the antigen in the absence of salt. Maximum recovery of 96-100% of active antibody occurred at pH 2.8-2.9. The amount of antibody recovered within any given pH range was highly reproducible. The average antibody affinity was found to be correlated with the pth of dissociation and to decrease exponentially with the length of exposure to acid conditions.