The point on polyclonal antisera is well taken and that's why, whenever
possible, we use preimmune serum from the same animal or pool of animals
used to produce the antibody diluted to the same Ig concentration as the
primary antibody. By using this control you can see if any "background"
antibodies already present in the serum will affect your results.
Unfortunately, this is rarely possible when using commercial antibodies. Can
anyone suggest a true negative control for polyclonals in this case?

John Tarpley 15-2-B
Specialist Image Analysis & Immunohistochemistry
Amgen Inc
One Amgen Center Drive
Thousand Oaks, CA  91320


> ----------
> From: 	brian chelack[SMTP:chelack@admin3.usask.ca]
> Sent: 	Wednesday, October 14, 1998 5:07 PM
> To: 	A. Mark Briones
> Cc: 	HistoNet Server
> Subject: 	Re: Neg Immunocontrols
>
>
>
> Just a quick observation regarding the use of "non-immune sera" as a
> negative
> control.  Investigators should be aware that non immune sera will always
> contain
> antibodies to other common pathogens that the negative control animal has
> experienced in its past.  A case in point in our lab was the use of
> "non-immune
> rabbit sera as a control alongside a rabbit antisera for Bovine
> respiratory syncitial
> virus.