fungi in antibody working solution - can I filter and re-use? (Mar/29/2009 )

hi all,

I usually keep my working solution of primary antibody in 1%BSA-PBST at 4 degrees for immunofluorescence experiments. Today I was about to use the antibody (which is 1:100 dilution) that I saw it has fungi in it.

to be honest I don't know if it's really fungi or BSA crystals but it didn't look good for IF incubation anyway.

I made another solution though but I want to know if I can re-use this antibody in case I filter it with a 0.22 um or 0.45 um filters?

I wouldn't use it, who knows what the fungus is secreting into the solution, and what it has used up. If you want to preserve the antibody solutions a little better, you can add 0.01% sodium azide.

thank you bob1

you are right, we don't know what the fungus is secreting.

I will have to throw away the solution although it was a very concentrated antibody (60 ug in 6 ml). next time I'll add sodium azide to not let fungi grow.