What is pre-adsorption?

Pre-adsorption is an additional purification step that is carried out to increase the specificity of a secondary antibody and minimize non-specific binding. It involves passing the solution containing secondary antibodies through a column matrix containing immobilized serum proteins or immunoglobulin from potentially cross-reactive species. As the solution passes through the column, the non-specific secondary antibodies bind to the immobilized proteins retaining themselves within the column, while the highly specific secondary antibodies flow through.