Normal Rat Serum (Filtered)

Store at -20°C or -80°C.

This product contains no preservatives or anticoagulants.

Shipped on Dry Ice. Upon delivery aliquot and store at -20°C or -80°C. Avoid repeated freeze/thaw cycles.

Normal rat serum is used in research for preventing unwanted antibody interactions during tissue and cell staining experiments.

It blocks two main issues:
1) Fc receptor binding- The serum blocks Fc receptors on the sample from attaching to the primary and secondary antibodies used in the experiment.
2) Non-specific antibody binding- It also prevents the antibodies themselves from sticking to irrelevant parts of the sample.

What to look for when choosing a blocking serum:
1) Species matters- The serum typically comes from a different animal species than the one used to create the primary antibody.
2) Secondary antibody consideration- Often, the blocking serum is derived from the same species as the secondary antibody.

This serum can be used in two ways:
1) Direct application- The serum is applied directly to the sample for blocking.
2) Blocking buffer component- The serum can be incorporated into a solution specifically designed for blocking, called a blocking buffer.

Normal serum diluted to 5% (v/v) in PBS (or comparable buffer) is strongly recommended as a blocking agent to reduce background from non-specific, conserved-sequence, and/or Fc-receptor binding.