22 Page Flashcards
What are precipitation reactions?
Involves combination of soluble antigen with soluble antibody to produce insoluble complexes that are visible.
What is affinity in the context of antigen-antibody interactions?
Initial force of attraction that exists between a single Fab site on an antibody molecule and a single epitope or determinant site of the corresponding antigen.
What are the types of bonds involved in affinity?
- Ionic bond
- Hydrophobic bond
- Hydrophilic bond
- Van der Waals force
What is avidity?
Sum of all attractive forces between an antigen and an antibody, representing the overall strength of antigen-antibody binding.
What governs the reversibility of antigen-antibody binding?
All antigen-antibody binding is reversible and is governed by the law of mass action.
What does the law of mass action state?
Free reactants are in equilibrium with bound reactants.
Turbidimetry
Measures the turbidity or cloudiness of a solution (light blocked).
What is nephelometry?
Typically measures light scatter at angles ranging from 10-90 degrees.
Which immunoglobulins can be quantified by rate nephelometry?
IgG, IgA, IgM, and IgE, as well as kappa and lambda light chains.
IgD cannot be measured.
IgD cannot be measured in nephelometry
TRUE
What is Passive gel-based immunoprecipitation?
Passive method using no electrical current (agar, agarose, gel).
What are the 2 types of gel-based immunoprecipitation?
Passive and Active
What factors affect the rate of diffusion in gel-based immunoprecipitation?
The size of the particles, the temperature, the gel viscosity, and the amount of hydration.
What are the types of immunodiffusion?
- Single immunodiffusion
- Double immunodiffusion
What is the zone of equivalence?
Optimum precipitation, in which the number of multivalent sites of antigen and antibody are approximately equal.
