The accuracy of antibody-based microarrays depends on eliminating or at least minimizing the effect of cross-reactive components. In this work, a method to create a versatile, compartmentalized storage system for antibodies and soluble microarray reagents is described. These containers are made of hydrogel plugs immobilized on a slide facing the corresponding sub-array on a printed surface. The hydrogels were polymerized using a 4% w/v N,N-dimethylacrylamide and 3% w/v bisacrylamide solution, thus generating large pore sizes to allow the facile transfer of intact, functional biomolecules. The hydrogel microenvironments can be desiccated and rehydrated with a desired solution, and they can store reagents in a dry form. These hydrogels were shown to provide limits of detection similar to those obtained by conventional incubation conditions in an assay for HIV p24 antigen. Moreover, they prevent cross-reactivity issues in the detection of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins A and B and promote the accurate quantification of interleukin 10 by a microarray-integrated calibration curve.
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