Measuring the flexibility of immunoglobulin by gold nanoparticles.

We measured the flexibility of Fab and Fc arms of immunoglobulin using gold nanoparticles (GNPs). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to measure the affinity of anti-5 nm GNP antiserum against various sizes of GNPs. The flexibility of Fc was also measured by electron microscopy. The restricted binding affinity indicated that only a very limited amount of freedom was allowed for the Fab-Fab hinge, while Fab-Fc showed a much larger degree of freedom.