Recombinant Isotype Controls

Negative controls are essential to conducting thorough and meaningful experiments. Antibodies can bind to other molecules, especially other proteins, in non-specific or undesired ways. To show that identification of a particular band on a Western Blot or staining for a cell-surface marker in flow cytometry using an antibody is specific, a negative control may be used which should not result in similar band patterns or staining.

Isotype Controls

Isotype controls are a particular type of negative control that feature the same Fc region as the antibody the actual experiment is being conducted with but a variable region that should not bind antigen in the experiment. The Fc region can interact specifically with Fc receptors or complement; hence, it is necessary to control for this “background” when staining for cell-surface markers. These interactions may even be across species; e.g., rat IgG with mouse Fc receptors. Therefore, a diverse panel of isotype controls was traditionally required when performing flow cytometry. See also our Fc Silent™ product range for practical solutions to this problem.

Standardized Controls Offered by Absolute Antibody

Antibody engineering makes possible the generation of a standardized panel of isotype controls with the same “specificity” (i.e., derived from the same original antibody) – this can reduce experimental complexity. The panels benefit from the superior reproducibility and purity we obtain using our recombinant production platform.

Absolute Antibody currently offers isotype-control panels derived from four different antibodies: anti-NP, anti-fluorescein, anti-beta galactosidase (from E. coli) and an antibody called MOPC-21 with unknown specificity. All are available in human, mouse, rat, rabbit and hamster isotypes.

Don’t see the format you need? Just contact us and we’ll be happy to help you.

Products in this category:

Filter Results by... Filter Results

Species Reactivity

Applications

Recombinant Isotype Controls

Isotype Controls

Standardized Controls Offered by Absolute Antibody

Species Reactivity

Applications