USE OF STANDARDIZED PROTEASE ENZYMES FOR ANTIBODY SCREENING OF BLOOD-DONOR SAMPLES WITH THE MICROPLATE SYSTEM AUTOANALYZER

Papain, bromelin and ficin can be standardized by the casein method fo r use in red blood cell antibody screening tests. The minimal and opti mal enzyme activity for detecting blood group antibodies in donors, us ing the new Automated Pre-Transfusion Blood Testing System Olympus PK7 200 by the two-stage method for all three enzymes, is one casein unit. One casein unit of proteinase activity changed the red blood cell sur face charge to a low plateau value as measured by electrophoretic mobi lity and sialic acid content, and removed sterically inhibiting struct ures of surface protein as detected by SDS-PAGE.