Monoclonal antibodies in blood group serology

The state of the art of monoclonal antibody specifications and blending characteristics needed to produce high quality reagents are described for ABO, RhD and polyspecific anti-human globulin (AHG) reagents.Some interesting advances have been made. Thus some murine monoclonal anti-As (e.g. MH04) see Ax. Also, they may show feeble reactions with the traces of A on some group B cells (the B(A) phenomenon) and the quality control of these reagents is discussed. The use of anti-A,B reagents is now debatable as monoclonal anti-A/anti-B reagents are now more reliable than conventional reagents for detecting weak sub-groups of A and B.RhD typing by saline routine and rapid tests can now be performed with IgM monoclonal anti-D reagents (e.g. MAD-2), but the old problem of Du and D variants is discussed as IgM anti-D is not reliable for their detection.Monoclonal anti-C3c/C3d or just selected anti-C3d (BRIC-8) blended with rabbit anti-IgG make excellent potent clean AHG reagents. The essential false positive test of fresh serum incubated with CPD-A1 red cells from donor pack segment lines is essential for the adjustment and evaluation of AHG reagents.Selected monoclonal anti-M, anti-N, anti-Le^a and Le^b are established as excellent typing reagents and monoclonal antibodies have now been developed to e, E, K, k and other red cell antigens.