How Stable Are Your Antibodies During Storage, Freeze-Thaw, and Shipping?
Reagent stability is an essential concern for many researchers. In the life sciences, researchers understand that there are particular concerns regarding the lifecycle and storage of reagents like recombinant proteins, peptides, and antibodies. These concerns can be amplified by logistical aspects of research, such as laboratory conditions during extreme weather conditions like heatwaves or power outages.
At HUABIO, we’re driven to ensure that our reagents will be compatible with your applications the first time and reproducibly for each consistent use. On each product data sheet, we provide recommended storage conditions and an expiration date. For example, we recommend long-term storage of most of our antibodies at -20 °C in aliquots to minimize freeze-thaw cycles. But what happens to your reagents if your freezer errors overnight, or your antibody gets stuck in a delivery truck for an extra day?
Our R&D team is committed to providing the most technical and transparent data regarding the performance of our products. Especially with regards to recent historic weather events, we have been working exceptionally hard to quantify and validate the stability of our immunoreagents. Here are several case studies that show the unique stability of our products.
Case 1 – Storage Conditions
As a means to verify antibody stability at various temperature conditions, we took our beta-actin antibody (EM21002) and stored aliquots of the same tube at a gradient of temperatures (ranging from -20 °C to 37 °C). Even after four weeks of storage at elevated temperatures, our beta-actin antibody performed identically across all temperature conditions. While we still recommend storing our products as the datasheet describes, this result shows that you don’t have to throw out the full 100 µL if the brand-new undergraduate intern in your lab accidentally leaves the vial sitting out overnight. We also performed a similar experiment for ELISA applications, where we took our PAX5 recombinant antibody (HA722777) and compared aliquots stored at 4 °C (which we recommend for short-term antibody storage) versus 37 °C. After two weeks, the antibody titer showed no statistically significant difference between the two temperatures.
Case 2 – Freeze/Thaw Stability
One of the biggest unspoken rules in most biology and chemistry laboratories is to avoid freeze-thaw cycles, as the formation of ice crystals can shear the structures that hold together certain reagents, including antibodies. While we are able to control so much by aliquoting our samples, it can be mortifying to learn that temperature variation through instances like power losses could affect the stability of your immunoreagents. To empirically study the consequences of freeze/thaw, our researchers performed a sandwich ELISA experiment using our IL-1RA paired antibodies (HA722788 capture, HA722789 detector) that had been freeze/thawed three times. This extent of freeze/thaw had no effect on the performance of neither capture nor detector antibodies in ELISA with CV strictly controlled below 10% and no statistically significant difference against a sandwich ELISA that had not undergone any freeze/thaw cycles. Aliquotting remains the best practice, but you can have peace of mind that our antibodies are exceptionally recalcitrant against freeze/thaw cycles.
Case 3 – Transportation Storage
While we are able to control temperature within the laboratory, what happens when we send our antibodies from our warehouse to your stockroom? Though we do ship our products with ice packs, it can be concerning to think of your antibody being shipped during extreme temperature events. To address this, we took our PAX5 recombinant antibody (HA722777) and put it to the test after taking a ride on the shipping truck for three days. What we found was that our antibody was still potent for ELISA, exhibiting no significant difference compared against an aliquot of the same vial that was stored at -20 °C for those three days. You can rest assured that you are receiving a stable, fresh stock of reagent when your HUABIO antibody arrives, even in the ambience of a shipping truck.
At HUABIO, we are committed to providing you with the highest quality tools to make the next discovery about the questions of life science. Questions about the stability of your antibody? Reach out to our human-monitored inbox at [email protected].