Monoclonal Antisera

[jojo808]

Could someone explain why would anyone want to use anything other than Monoclonal antisera (which is so much more faster) than AHG antisera?? Would it have to do with sensitivity?? Our Rh's and Kidd antisera are monoclonal (Ortho) whereas our Duffy, S's (Biorad), and Kell are not. It would save a lot  of time if we switched over to monoclonal (I'm hoping someone makes them).

We do our antigen testing via tube method. Also read some interesting topics here about phenotype testing it with the Gel cards by taking 50 uL of 0.8% cell suspension of patient rbc's and adding 25 uL of the antisera. We would definitely prefer the Gel/card method if I had to choose between that or tube method IAT (we manually wash cells ) .  Appreciate any advice 

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

Sometimes it is a matter of cost (the polyclonal antibodies are sometimes cheaper than the monoclonal equivalent), sometimes it is a matter of availability (as not all specificities are available as monoclonals) and sometimes the monoclonal antibodies are, themselves, IgG, but I would totally agree with you that, where available, I would use monoclonals every time.

Where suitable reagent antisera are available, the NHSBT Reference Laboratories in the UK will always use monoclonal antibodies for typing, and, again, where suitable antisera are available, we will use these by column agglutination technology (although just a very few are not available - so do your validation well!).

[David Saikin]

I used monoclonals whenever I could.  Validated them in gel.  A few did not work.  Immucor makes a nice monoclonal Kell. I wasn't impressed w their monoclonal Kidds though.  You just have to review what the vendors have to sell.  It gets updated as their product receive FDA approval.