Immunoglobulin Y (IgY) is a major antibody in avian species, reptiles, and lungfish blood. IgY is also found in high concentrations within chicken egg yolks. IgY is often mislabeled as Immunoglobulin G (IgG) in older literature, and sometimes even in commercial product catalogues, due to its functional similarity to mammalian IgG and Immnunoglobulin E (IgE). However, this older nomenclature is obsolete, since IgY differs both structurally and functionally from mammalian IgG, and does not cross-react with antibodies raised against mammalian IgG.

Chicken and avian IgY is a fast growing field of immunoglobulin research due to several of the unique and advantageous properties of the IgY immunoglobulin. It’s widely known that IgY does not activate mammalian complement factors, making it extremely useful in the development of assays for mammalian serums. IgY also has the beneficial property of being present not only in avian serum but also being the sole immunoglobulin in egg yolk. This allows for the potential for cleaner preps of IgY due to the lack of other immunoglobulins in egg yolk. Furthermore, chicken’s ability to lay eggs almost daily, and the yolk of an immunized hen’s egg containing such high concentrations of IgY, has allowed for chickens to gradually become a more popular source of customized antibodies for research.

Neither Protein A or Protein G are capable of binding IgY, making purification difficult at large scale due to the lack of affinity media. LigaTrap Technologies continues to make groundbreaking strides in the field of immunoglobulin purification by releasing our LigaTrap Chicken IgY Purification Resin, capable of binding IgY at ≥15mg/mL from both serum and yolk samples.

In addition to increased yields and purity levels, LigaTrap Technologies address many of the shortfalls related to standard affinity ligands including challenges.  Our peptide ligands provide for a robust lifecycle, mild elution conditions and no immunogenicity or leaching. (MATCH IgM)

Product Descriptions

Purification kits are offered in microspin column, 1mL prepacked column, and 5mL prepacked column formats. Each kit includes the appropriate buffers and protocol for performing purifications.

Prepacked columns are offered in 1mL and 5mL formats for our various lines of antibody affinity chromatography resins. Prepacked columns come in kit formats or as standalone products.

Loose resin is available in various volume sizes which can be packed for end user’s specific purification needs. For bulk resin orders larger than 100mL, please inquire.

This product is not recommended in serum purification applications due to cross-reactivity with other immunoglobulins. Please consult LigaTrap for protocols that may improve results in serum.