UTILIZATION OF POLYSPECIFIC ANTISERUM FOR SPECIFIC RADIOIMMUNOASSAYS - RADIOIMMUNOASSAYS FOR RAT FETUIN AND BIKUNIN WERE DEVELOPED BY USINGANTISERUM AGAINST TOTAL RAT SERUM-PROTEINS

Polyspecific antiserum against total rat serum proteins was used to de velop specific and sensitive radioimmunoassays for fetuin and bikunin, two minor protein components of rat plasma. The radioimmunoassays pro ved to be highly useful to trace bikunin and fetuin in the course of d eveloping isolation procedures, since neither specific functional assa ys nor monospecific antisera were available. The two examples demonstr ate that, in general, it will be possible to develop a specific and se nsitive radioimmunoassay with antiserum raised against a crude antigen preparation, such as a body fluid or a tissue extract, provided that a minute amount of pure antigen is available for preparing the radioio dinated antigen.