Kinetic study of antibody adhesion on a silicon wafer by laser reflectometry

Antibody adhesion kinetic in real time has been studied by laser reflectometry technique. An ellipsometer is used to measure the light intensity reflected by a silicon wafer. Light intensity reflected by the wafer presents a minimum at the pseudo-Brewster angle. Then, the reflectance increases as the antibodies (monoclonal anti-AB) adhere on interface. Mathematical analysis of reflectance curves versus time verifies that the antibody adhesion at the interface follows Langmuir kinetics (Prog. Biomed. Opt. Imaging 1(5) (2000) 19) for low antibody concentrations. Parameters obtained allow to carry out a detailed study of the antibody adsorption and the antigen-antibody interaction. This conduces to development of an optical immunosensor for detection and quantification of soluble antigens, and a novel method for commercial antiserum quality control. This technique does not require labeled antibodies, being also independent of cellular factors. Also, this technique is quicker and sensible than the conventional immuno hematology methods. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.