Question

Antibody titer is a measure of activity, not actual concentration. Explain why titer is a measure of activity, not a concentration. Please use the following example: You have anti-sheep red blood cells from two different companies, both with the same concentration, but one has a high titer and one with a low titer.

Answer 1

Antibody concentration is actually the total amount of the antibody produced by the body.

On the contrary, the antibody titer is the total amount of the functional antibody that is present in the blood of an organisms which is know to perform its function by binding to the foreign protein or epitope.

Therefore, it can said that “antibody titer is a measure of the activity of the antibody that is present inside the blood in a diluted state, but the actual concentration only represents the amount of the antibody produces by the body.

Therefore, if a sample has high titer that means the functional antibodies are present in more concentration inside the blood. On the other hand, sample with low titer contains less antibodies that are functional and their dilution is more as compared to the sample with high titer.

References:

(2020). Angelfire.com. Retrieved 8 May 2020, from http://www.angelfire.com/clone2/fouad/techniques/Antibody_concentration_vs_titer.pdf

Johnson, M. (2020). Antibody Dilution and Antibody Titer. Materials And Methods . Retrieved from https://www.labome.com/method/Antibody-Dilution-and-Antibody-Titer.html