Effect of surfactants on the intensity of chemiluminescence emission from acridinium ester labelled proteins

Abstract In order to establish optimum conditions for the chemiluminescent (CL) reaction of two acridinium ester labelled proteins (human albumin and rabbit anti‐human albumin IgG), we investigated the effects of the following factors known to influence the CL emission: pH, presence of proteins, relative concentrations of components of CL reaction and presence of surfactants. Under optimal conditions of pH and hydrogen peroxide concentration, hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC) increased the intensity of the CL reaction of the acridinium ester labelled albumin by 42‐fold. Triton X‐100, Tween‐20, 23 lauryl ether (Brij 35) and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) exerted a much smaller effect. In the case of the acridinium ester labelled antibody, the greatest increase was obtained with Triton X‐100 (15‐fold) followed by CTAC, Brij 35 and Tween 20 (SDS decreased the emission intensity).