Our membrane cytokine and other antibody arrays enable the analysis of the levels of up to 96 cytokines or other proteins in one experiment. These antibody arrays have pg/mL sensitivity and are easy tools for comparing up to twenty samples in one experiment. They are antibody pair-based assays, just like an ELISA, and only require the same equipment as any chemiluminescent western blot for analysis.

In addition to cytokines, they are also valuable tools for studying chemokines, growth factors, angiogenesis, apoptosis, and other proteins. Good examples of our cytokine arrays are ab133997and ab133998, measuring 42 and 80 human cytokines, respectively.

Advantages of membrane-based cytokine arrays and antibody arrays for other targets

Antibody arrays are used to measure many proteins simultaneously in one experiment, with significantly less time, effort, and cost than running the many ELISAs or western blots required for the same number of analytes. Compared to other multiplex immunoassays, such as bead-based assays, membrane antibody arrays are very easy to set up and are significantly cheaper for comparison when you need to compare many proteins across a small number of samples.

Antibody arrays offer several advantages:

• No special equipment required: chemiluminescent detection method is the same as a western blot
• Suitable for any chemiluminescent blot documentation system: film developer or benchtop darkroom
• Free densitometer and spot recognition analysis software: available for download for free from NIH
• Suitable for use with the Li-Cor^® detection system : adapted array protocol for Li-Cor^®
• Large detection range: 10,000 fold detection (in pg/mL)
• Duplicate antibody spots: capture antibodies are spotted in duplicate.
• Optimized kit: our antibody array kit contains buffers, detection antibodies, and membranes.

How do membrane-based antibody arrays work?

​​​​Antibody arrays are an antibody-pair-based assay, analogous to ELISA, but using a membrane as a substrate rather than a plate. Capture antibodies are supplied arrayed/spotted on a membrane, with each pair of spots representing a different analyte. Sample is added (0.2-1 mL of 1 sample to each membrane), and then paired biotinylated detector antibodies and streptavidin-HRP.

The array is analyzed using the same methods as a chemiluminescent western blot. Comparison between samples can be by eye or using densitometry software for a semi-quantitative comparison. The whole assay can be run in a single day or with overnight incubations.​​​​​​​​​

Comparison of ELISA vs membrane antibody arrays

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