Page "ELISPOT" Paragraph 2

By virtue of exquisite sensitivity of the ELISPOT assay, frequency analysis of rare cell populations ( e. g., antigen-specific responses ) which were not possible before are now relatively easy.

This exceptional sensitivity is in part because the product is rapidly captured around the secreting cell: before it is either diluted in the supernatant, captured by receptors of adjacent cells, or degraded.

This makes ELISPOT assays much more sensitive than conventional ELISA measurements.

Limits of detection are below 1 / 100, 000 rendering enumerate the actively producing cells.

This allows much of the analysis process to be automated, and permits a greater level of accuracy than what can be achieved using manual inspection.