12-16-2013, 12:43 PM (This post was last modified: 12-16-2013, 10:27 PM by Administrator.)
Selection Guide for Monoclonal vs. Polyclonal Antibodies
The biggest difference between polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies is that polyclonal antibodies recognize multiple epitopes and monoclonal antibodies are specific to a single epitope. This primary difference impacts various features of these antibody types which need to be considered to identify the best choice for your applications including:
1.Epitope specificity
2.Volume needed
3.Continuity of supply
4.Tolerance to changes to the antigen
5.Cross-reactivity
6.Use across related species
7.Turnaround time
8.Cost
Monoclonal antibodies :
1. Highly expensive in production
2. Demanding very good technology
3. Technical know-how of using the technology is necessary
4. Required time for hydromas is quite long
5. Has the ability to produce a big number of specific antibodies
6. Simply mono means single and recognizing single epitope on antigen
7. Hybridoma is a constant source which can also be renewable
Polyclonal antibodies:
1. Inexpensive in production
2. Requirement for technology is rare
3. No need of high skills requirements
4. Required time is short
5. Has the ability to produce large amount of non specific antibodies
6. Recognizing multiple epitope on one antigen
7. Batch to batch variability
Polyclonal advantages and disadvantages
• Polyclonals can help in amplifying signals from protein under low expression level. Since the target protein would bind more than one antibody molecule on the multiple eptitopes. It is simply an advantage for multiplication.
• Polyclonals are considered to be of paramount importance for identifying denatured proteins.
• The production of non-specific antibodies have gross impacts
• Prone to variability has also some effects
• It has the ability to produce good results in IP/ ChIP
• Polyclonal antibodies are not useful for investigating specific domains of antigen, because antiserum would generally identify many domains.