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Medical Definition of IgM antibody capture ELISA
1. Developed to impart significant improvement in assay specificity to indirect ELISA procedures for IgM isotype antibodies. Solid-phase support (usually microtitre plate wells) are coated with anti-human IgM antibodies capable of binding all IgM isotype antibodies present in the specimen. Reagent antigen is then added, followed by enzyme-labelled antigen-specific antibodies. If IgM antibodies specific for the antigen in question are present, the "sandwich" complex will result in enzymatic colour-change proportional to the concentration of IgM-specific antibody present. This technique appears to be the method of choice in many highly specific and more sensitive assays for IgM infectious disease antibodies. Acronym: MAC ELISA (05 Mar 2000)