J. Davies et al., USE OF SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY AND SURFACE-PLASMON RESONANCE AS ANALYTICAL TOOLS IN THE STUDY OF ANTIBODY-COATED MICROTITER WELLS, Langmuir, 10(8), 1994, pp. 2654-2661
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)
have been employed to study microtiter wells used for enzyme linked im
munosorbant assays of the protein ferritin. Two methods of immobilizat
ion of a ferritin antibody on microtiter well surfaces were evaluated.
Namely, passive adsorption of unmodified antibody, and specific linki
ng of biotinylated antibody via a streptavidin-coated microtiter well
surface. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) data clearly show films and n
etworks of monoclonal antibody on the well surfaces and individual fer
ritin molecules bound by the antibody. SPM images give an average mole
cular diameter for the ferritin bound to the antibody complex of 14.8
+/- 1.0 nm for the STM data and approximately 30 nm for the AFM data.
SPM analysis shows that only 5% of total antibody passively adsorbed o
n the well surface is functional compared with the 60% on biotinylated
antibody on the streptavidin surface. In similar experiments using su
rface plasmon resonance (SPR) experimental data also indicated an incr
ease in the functionality of a streptavidin-coated surface compared wi
th a blank surface. The results highlight the correlation between STM
and AFM data and the use of SPR as a correlative technique to SPM for
the study of biomaterial surface interactions.