Are monoclonal antibodies better, compared to polyclonal antibodies?

The major difference between polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies is the number of epitopes these antibodies recognize. An epitope can be linear or confirmational, and consist of 3-15 amino acids. Polyclonal antibodies recognize a pool of epitopes of different lengths, while monoclonal antibodies only recognize one single epitope. This fact often makes polyclonal antibodies more versatile, when it comes to usage in different applications. However, this may also contribute to increased background signal, which in many cases can be decreased by proper optimization. When it comes to stability, the loss of activity for polyclonal antibodies is often observed as a gradual decline, while the process is rather abrupt in the case of monoclonal antibodies.



  
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