Immobilization of antibodies on alginate-chitosan beads.

An anti-hapten IgG was covalently immobilized on glutaraldehyde-activated alginate-chitosan gel beads. The antibody immobilization efficiency was influenced by glutaraldehyde-bead reaction time, IgG concentration and pH. In addition, immobilization conditions such as glutaraldehyde and antibody concentrations influenced antibody hapten binding affinity. The immobilized IgG on the beads was stable and no reduction in the percent binding to hapten was noticed following 25 days of storage. It was concluded that antibodies could be successfully immobilized on alginate-chitosan gel beads. Such a system can be applied for the development of immunoaffinity purification and immunoassays.