ABSTRACT
Mouse MAbs are now widely used for the immunodetection of cellular antigens. They are mostly revealed by indirect fluorescence using fluorochrome-labeled polyclonal goat or rabbit antibodies. Good quality heterosera recognizing all Ig classes and subclasses are difficult to produce (see Chapter 10). Differences in quality between batches may also be encountered. These problems should be avoided by the use of MAbs as second layer reagents. Some attempts have been made with fluorescein-labeled (FITC) rat-rat MAbs anti-mouse Igs. Figure 1 shows the compared results obtained with a FITC-labeled commercial goat anti-mouse antiserum and FITC-labeled rat anti-mouse Ig, as observed by analysis on an EPICS flow cytofluorometer (Coulter). A mixture of different MAbs will in the future give an excellent and reproducible labeled second layer reagent to detect any mouse MAb.
