Anti-Mesp1 antibody (ab129387)

Thank you for your reply.

I think with further optimisation the antibody may produce better results. However, I can understand your frustration and would be happy to provide you with a credit note.

Your credit note ID is xxxxx.


The credit note may be used in one of the following ways:

(1) Redeemed against the original invoice if this hasn't already been paid.
(2) Held on the account for use against a future order.
(3) A full refund can be offered where no other invoices are outstanding.


I hope this experience will not prevent you from purchasing other products from us in the future. Our Scientific Support team is always at your service should you require further expert advice

Thank you for your reply and confirming those details.

I understand and appreciate the amount of time you have spent in the laboratory and it is regrettable the results have not been successful. Our policy is that we are happy to offer a refund, credit note or free of charge replacement when a product is not working in a successfully tested applications or species (and the product has been purchased in the last 120 days). However, we often find that suggesting some scientifically thought out optimisation tips improves the results. This is a preferable outcome for the customer. So I hope you can understand that our policy is to offer the best technical support to get the experiment working if possible.

I would be happy to provide a refund for you. This would be refunded directly onto the account which paid for ab129387. Alternatively, I can arrange for a credit note (which can be used against any future orders) or provide a replacement antibody of your choice from our catalogue.

I look forward to hearing how you would like to proceed.

Thank you for your reply and for providing those extra details.

The details provided will enable us to investigate this case and will provide us with vital information for monitoring product quality.

Having reviewed this case, I think it would be worth trying a few additional modifications to see if the staining improves:

1. You have stated that you are currently using 20 minutes of fixation in 4% PFA. We have found in our hands this can often be too long, potentially resulting in cross-linking of the proteins to the point where antigen retrieval may be required. I would therefore suggest reducing this to 10 minutes. I think it would also be good to try a different fixative such as methanol or acetone in parallel to see which produces the best results with your cell samples.

2. I would also suggest increasing the concentration of the antibody used to see if a stronger signal results. I would try 1/50.

Should the suggestions not improve the results, please do let me know.

I was wondering if you could clarify some more details about the secondary antibody used. Has it been used with any other primary antibodies? How has this staining performed? Have you used any counter stain such as DAPI?

I hope this information is helpful, and I thank you for your cooperation.

Thank you for sharing that extra information. It makes understanding the experiments you have carried out much clearer.

As discussed over the phone, I looked back at the other report of problems with this antibody identified by someone else at xxxxx. Unfortunately, during the correspondence there was some confusion as to who was having problems and I believe it was your purchasing agent that was contacted, not the end user. I will therefore try to get in contact with them again to investigate this case further and to see if the problem has resolved.

I was hoping you could provide some further information in order to understand what may be contributing to the problems observed:

1. Are you staining any other target in your cells at the same time and using ab129387? If so, which target was being looked at and how were the results?

2. Which secondary antibody was used (conjugate)? Has this been used in the detection of any other primary antibodies? You mentioned that it was an anti-human secondary. I assume this was an error, the ab129387 is a rabbit polyclonal IgG.

3. I have been trying to find some further information on whether Mesp1 would be expected to be detected in iPSC cells. It seems it is a marker of cardiac differentiation. Could you explain a little further regarding the experiment you are carrying out and why you believe your cell culture should contain Mesp1?

Hopefully from this information we might be able to improve on the results observed. I look forward to receiving your reply.

Thank you for contacting us this afternoon.

I am sorry to hear you are experiencing difficulties with one of our products. We take product complaints very seriously, and investigate every product that we feel may not be performing correctly.

As we discussed over the phone, I am attaching our questionnaire so that I can gather further information regarding the samples tested and the protocol used with this antibody. Once I have receive the completed questionnaire, I will look at the protocol and see if there are any suggestions I can make that may improve the results. As mentioned, it would be very helpful if you could also include an image of the results observed.

As discussed, I will also look into the other report in regards to this antibody raised by another group at xxxxx.

This information will also allow us to investigate this case internally and initiate additional testing where necessary. If the product was purchased in the last six months and is being used according to our Abpromise, we would be happy to replace or refund the antibody.

I look forward to receiving your reply.

Customer Service has passed the following message to me:

"Dear Abcam, Many thanks for your prompt reply and dispatch of the order listed below - unfortunately the ordered antibody did not work. If you would please advise how to proceed in order to receive a new version of the antibody that works in ICC as advertised. If you do not have an antibody that is confirmed to work for Anti-Mesp1 we could do some Lot testing with smaller aliquots."

If you need any further assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am sorry to hear that you have been experiencing problems using this product in the application that you wish.

In order to assess the quality of our products I would ask that you complete a brief questionnaire relating to the application used. Often it is possible to make suggestions that may help resolve problems experienced using a particular product.

As our Abpromise indicates, in the event that a product is not functioning in the applications/species cited on the product data sheet (and the problem has been reported within 6 months of purchase) we will happily offer a credit note/refund to the value of the product purchased.

All our customer feedback, including complaints are monitored weekly by our in house technical support team. If a product is at fault the technical support team will consider removing the product from our catalogue in order to avoid future customer inconvenience.

Please could you provide some further details of the protocol used and complete the following form (attached as a word document). It would be much appreciated if you could attach an image to the response.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation in this matter. I look forward to hearing from you soon and resolving this issue as soon as possible.