This lab activity is designed to study highly specific lock-key matching properties of antigen-antibody and how this highly specific interaction can be exploited as a tool for research and analysis. This study involves the use of an immunodiffusion technique in which antigen and antibody are allowed to diffuse in a solid agarose medium. When antigen and antibody meet, antigen-antibody complex is formed, which leads to precipitation. Antigen-antibody precipitate is formed in the zone where the concentration of the two matching pair reaches an optimal known as the zone of equivalence, which results in formation of a visible opaque precipitate region in agarose medium. Those regions of precipitation can be used for determination of concentration or titer of both antigen and antibody.
This Antigen-Antibody Interaction kit is a hands-on study of both Ouchterlony Double Diffusion and Radial Immunodiffusion techniques. This kit also provides additional guidance materials for teaching other types of antigen-antibody interactions concepts such as immunoelectro- phoresis and immunoprecipitation.