Description
Upon initial thawing, recombinant mouse IL-4 (Cat. No. 550067) should be aliquoted into polypropylene microtubes and frozen at -80°C for future use. Alternatively, the product can be diluted in sterile netural buffer containing not less than 0.5 - 10 mg/mL carrier protein, such as human or bovine serum albumin, aliquoted and stored at -80°C. For use as an ELISA standard, carrier protein concentrations of 5 - 10 mg/mL are recommended. For in vtiro biological assays, carrier protein concentrations of 0.5 - 1 mg/mL are suggested. Failure to add carrier protein or store at the indicated temperatures may result in a loss of activity. This product should not be diluted to less than 50 µg/mL for long term storage. Carrier proteins should be pre-screened for possible effects in each investigator's experimental system. Carrier proteins may have an undesired influence on experimental results due to toxicity, high endotoxin levels or possible blocking activity. ELISA Standard: Mouse IL-4 is useful as a quantitative standard for measuring mouse IL-4 protein levels in an IL-4 specific sandwich ELISA with the purified 11B11 antibody (Cat. No. 554434) as a capture antibody and the biotinylated clone BVD6-24G2 (Cat. No. 554390) as the detection antibody. To obtain linear standard curves, doubling dilutions of the mouse IL-4 standard from ~2,000 to 15 pg/mL should be included with each ELISA plate. This ELISA pair is recommended primarily for measuring cytokine from experimental cell culture systems, not for assay of serum or plasma samples. For measuring IL-4 in serum or plasma, the BD OptEIA™ Mouse IL-4 Set (Cat. No. 555232) is specially formulated and recommended. Bioassay: Investigators are advised that the Bioassay application is not routinely tested for this material and are highly encouraged to both titrate this material and include appropriate controls in relevant experiments. An activity range of 0.3 - 2.0 x 10^8 units/mg, encompassing an ED50= 50 - 300 pg/mL, has previously been reported using MC/9 indicator cells for proliferation with MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) and a unit defined as the amount of material needed to stimulate a half-maximal response at cytokine saturation.
Store product at -80°C prior to use or for long term storage of stock solutions. Rapidly thaw and quick-spin product prior to use. Avoid multiple freeze-thaws of product. This preparation contains no preservatives, thus it should be handled under aseptic conditions.
1. Since applications vary, each investigator should titrate the reagent to obtain optimal results.
2. Source of all serum proteins is from USDA inspected abattoirs located in the United States.
3. Please refer to www.bdbiosciences.com/us/s/resources for technical protocols.
