Use of chicken antibodies in enzyme immunoassays to avoid interference by rheumatoid factors

Abstract Rheumatoid factor (RF) is a major source of interference in many immunoassays. Most immunoassays use mammalian polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies, and RF can react with IgG from mammalian species, thus causing false-positive results. In this work we have studied RF interference in a sandwich ELISA, where RF in the sample may react with both the capture antibody and the detection antibody to give a false-positive reaction. We show that rheumatoid factors do not react with chicken IgY; if the capture antibody or detection antibody (or both) is of avian origin, the interference of RF or other anti-IgG antibodies in sandwich ELISA can be avoided.