Disturbance of hapten-antibody equilibria by ammonium sulphate solutions. A source of error in antibody affinity determinations.

The affinity of anti-hapten antibody can be conveniently measured by precipitating immune complexes with ammonium sulphate. The method has, however, not proved very reproducible. Here is described one variable difficult to control in the assay: the ammonium sulphate was found to cause dissociation of ligands from hapten (NIP)--antibody complexes. The reason was the volume increase caused by addition of ammonium sulphate. The study suggested that in the calculation of the free hapten concentration the final volume during precipitation should be used. The precipitate should not be washed when hapten binding capacities are measured.