General advice:
Antibodies, like most proteins, do not support the freeze / thaw cycles.
The best way to store an antibody is to maintain a high protein concentration (> 1 mg / ml), and to freeze aliquots. Then you can use the aliquots one by one.
Purified antibodies:
Once purified, if the antibody is at a concentration lower than 0.1 mg / ml, add a small amount of detergent or protein (0.1% TWEEN-20 or 1% bovine serum albumin) and inhibitors of proteases in the solution to protect the antibody. Finally, this solution should be stored in small aliquots of about 1 ml which should be frozen for long-term storage. If the solution is well protected, it can be stable for several months at 2-8 ° C.
Conjugated antibodies :
Lyophilized antibodies are stored at 2-8 ° C. Antibodies in liquid form or after reconstitution should be stable for 1 year if stored properly at 2-8 ° C.
For long-term storage after reconstitution, it is necessary to dilute the antibody with 50% glycerol, then aliquot it and store it at - 20 ° C.
Raw serum :
Aliquot using a reasonable size, usually 10 to 50 ml, and freeze them. Most serum can be safely stored for several months at 2-8 ° C with little loss of activity. Due to the protease inhibitors in the serum, low proteolysis is observed, and high concentrations of proteins allow the antibody to be maintained in a favorable environment with little denaturation. If you store the serum at 2-8 ° C, ensure that a preservative is added. We recommend using 0.05% (w / v) sodium azide.