Immunology of Elastin

This chapter describes different methods for the preparation of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies to insoluble or solubilized elastin and will detail their use in a variety of immunological procedures. Antisera have been prepared to insoluble and solubilized elastin using a variety of antigen preparations and animal hosts. The quantities of antigen used to produce these antisera are widely variable and there are insufficient data available for comparison of antibody response at each dose. Accordingly, there is no optimum concentration of elastin that should be used to immunize the host animal. It is important to note that antibodies to insoluble or solubilized forms of elastin may not form precipitable complexes. Therefore, immunoelectrophoresis or immunodiffusion is not the most effective way to monitor antiserum titer or to quantify the amounts of antigen in experimental samples. Passive hemagglutination and competitive protein binding assays are more useful for characterization of antisera and antigen quantification.