Chicken antibodies: a tool to avoid interference by complement activation in ELISA.

MicroELISA plates coated with mammalian IgG will activate the human complement system. It has been shown that this activation of the complement system may interfere in solid-phase immunometric assays, and that there is a difference between IgG from different species and between different IgG subclasses in their ability to activate the human complement system. We have studied the ability of mammalian IgG and avian IgG to activate the human complement system. We show that chicken IgG do not activate the human complement system, and chicken IgG can thus be used in solid-phase immunometric assays to reduce interference by complement activation.