How to Store Antibodies
General Storage Tips:
Antibodies, like most proteins, do not like to have multiple freeze-thaw cycles. Avoid repetitive freezing of your solution. The best way to store your antibody is to keep a high protein concentration (>1 mg/ml), and aliquot it for use. Then freeze the aliquots and keep just one around for day to day use at 2-8 C.
Purified Antibodies:
Once purified, if the antibody is at less than 0.1 mg/ml add a small amount of detergent or protein (0.1% TWEEN-20 or 1% bovine serum albumin) and some protease inhibitors to the solution to protect the antibody. These should be stored in smaller aliquots (about 1 ml) and frozen for long term storage though the protected solution is also stable for months at 2-8 C.
Conjugated Antibodies:
Store lyophilized antibodies at 2-8 C. Liquid antibodies or antibodies after reconstitution should be stable for 1 year if stored properly at 2-8 C. For long term storage after reconstitution, dilute the antibody with 50% glycerol, aliquot and store at -20 C.
Raw Serum:
Aliquot into reasonably sized aliquots (usually 10-50 ml) and freeze. Most serum can be stored safely for months at 2-8 C with little loss of activity. Due to the presence of protease inhibitors in serum little proteolysis is observed and high protein concentrations keep the antibody in a favorable environment with little denaturation. If you store the serum at 2-8 C, ensure that a preservative is added. We recommend using 0.05% (w/v) Sodium Azide.
ImmunoReagents, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of quality antibodies and reagents used in pharmaceutical research, life science research and in vitro diagnostics. Product offerings include a wide range of immunochemistry reagents such as purified immunoglobulins, primary antibodies, and secondary antibodies covering a broad spectrum of immunoglobulins from various species. ImmunoReagents also provides custom manufacturing to meet specific customer requirements while adhering to cGMP guidelines and ISO quality systems requirements. The company is located in Raleigh, North Carolina
