CRITICAL-EVALUATION OF THE APPLICABILITY OF CAPILLARY ZONE ELECTROPHORESIS FOR THE STUDY OF HAPTEN-ANTIBODY COMPLEX-FORMATION

The applicability of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) for the dete rmination of association constants of an hapten-antibody complex with values as high as 10(7) (mol/l)(-1) was investigated (dissociation con stant in the nmol range). As a reference method the well known, enzyme -linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was selected. The study describes the optimisation of the experimental conditions of the CZE technique. The CZE measurements were optimised according to an experimental desig n. The results of the CZE and ELISA methods are compared giving consid eration to the reproducibility (repeatability) of the two methods.