Title: heterophile antibody
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - heterophile antibody
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.13209
Status: current

Definition
Antibody raised against an antigen from one species, which also reacts against antigens from other species.

Notes
1) Heterophile antibodies are usually of low affinity and are a common cause of problems with immunoassays.
2) The existence of such antibodies explains observations of the presence of antibody against antigens from a variety of species without immunization.
3) Heterophile antibodies commonly arise from viral infection.

Related Term
- Forssman antigen: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13158

Source
- PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1175 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13209/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13209/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13209/xml

Citation: Citation: 'heterophile antibody' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13209
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Accessed: 2026-06-29T14:23:14+00:00