Whenever possible, use monoclonal blood grouping antisera. Most commercially available antisera are monoclonal. Anti-A antiserum is colour coded blue and anti-B antiserum is colour coded yellow.
Commercially produced antisera contain a preservative (e.g. 0.1% sodium azide) and most have a shelf-life of two years from the date of manufacture.
Antisera require storage at 2–8°C. Not all antisera can be frozen (this information can usually be found in the manufacturer’s literature).
When using a monoclonal anti-A antiserum it is not necessary to include an anti-AB antiserum in cell grouping.
Most monoclonal anti-A and anti-B sera are produced by tissue culture using hybridoma cell lines derived from fusing
(hybridising) mouse myeloma cells with specific antibody secreting lymphocytes (from immunized mice). The fused
cells are cloned and cultured.
Why use Monoclonal reagents?
- They are specific, stable and reproducible, giving consistent results.
- They agglutinate strongly rapidly (avidly) and are able to detect weak reacting antigen variants, e.g. A2 and other weak antigen A variants.
- Being of animal origin, they are free from infectious agents such as HBV and HIV.
- Polyagglutination due to the Thomsen phenomenon does not occur because anti-T antibody is not present in monoclonal antisera.
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