Agglutination kinetics of F(ab ')(2) coated polymer colloids

In a previous publication we have described a simple quantitative model des cribing the agglutination process due to antigen-antibody interactions in I gG-latex immunoassays. To achieve colloidal stability, however, some additi ves had to be used. In this paper we study the immunoreactivity of F(ab')(2 ) antibody physical and chemically adsorbed onto sulphonate polystyrene and chloromethylstyrene particles, respectively. This kind of latex immunoassa y does not show stability problems under physiological conditions. The infl uence on the agglutination kinetics of the protein coating level has been n ow studied for the whole coverage range. Also the influence of coupling pro cedure, storage time and ionic strength of the reaction medium have been in vestigated.