Reagent combination for solid phase immunofluorescent assay

Claim 1

An immunological reagent combination for use in an immunofluorescent assay comprising: (a) a plurality of water insoluble hydrophilic polymeric particles of about 0.1-10 microns in size which form a substantially homogeneous aqueous suspension and having covalently bonded thereto an immune reactant immunologically related to an unknown immune reactant to be determined; and (b) fluorescently labeled immune reactant immunologically related to said unknown, said particles and said fluorescently labeled immune reactant being in relative proportion for optimally carrying out an assay method comprising the steps of providing a plurality of water insoluble hydrophilic polymeric particles of about 0.1-10 microns in size which form a substantially homogeneous aqueous suspension and having covalently bonded thereto an immune reactant to be determined, providing a sample of unknown immune reactant to be determined, providing an appropriate amount of fluorescently labeled immune reactant immunologically related to said unknown, reacting said particles, sample, and labeled immune reactant to immunologically bind said particles in aqueous solution with a quantity of said labeled immune reactant proportional to the concentration of said unknown, physically separating all of said particles from said aqueous solution thereby separating the particles from unbound labeled immune reactant remaining in the aqueous solution, and measuring the fluorescence of an aqueous suspension of said separated particles by fluorometry, the fluorescence of labeled immune reactant bound to said particles being quantitatively related to the concentration of said unknown immune reactant.