Complementing antibody profiles: Assessing antibody function on antigen microarrays

What is it about?

Antigen microarrays are protein chips: spots with a diameter less than a millimeter, arranged in the form of arrays, on the surface of a suitable material. When such a chip is treated with serum, antibodies recognizing the molecules in the spots remain bound and can be detected. This is called antibody profiling. In this article we show that together with the detection of antibody binding another important immunological group of proteins, complement, can be detected. The interpretation of these measurements is also explained.

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Why is it important?

When analysing serum antibody reactivity against various targets in a systematic and systemic manner, the detection of complement proteins adds another dimension to the profile. Since complement has important effector functions this additional variable may help explain effects not fully understandable by antibody profiles.

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