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Dextramer® Controls – Best Practices in Research Call for the Best Controls in Experiments
Controls eliminate confounding factors, distinguish signal from background, and help troubleshoot protocols
Controls Are the Core of Every Experiment
Positive and negative controls are often an afterthought in the design of experiments. And yet, without them, results leave room for ambiguity. Only properly controlled experiments can concretely discriminate hypotheses.
Controls also help resolve technical issues in experiments:
- Dextramer® Negative Controls help maximize signal-to-noise ratios and enable accurate monitoring of your positive cell population.
- Dextramer® Positive Controls help optimize the staining procedure without wasting time, effort, and resources.

MHC I Dextramer® Negative Control staining allows to distinguish a MART-1-specific CD8+ T-cell population from background staining using flow cytometry.
Order Dextramer® Controls
Couple your Dextramer® reagents with the right positive and negative controls. Immudex offers different options to design Dextramer® Positive and Negative Controls with fluorophore labelling (PE, APC, and FITC) for your flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry experiments. See the allele and antigen combinations we propose for Positive and Negative controls.
To order, send an email to ordering@immudex.com specifying:
- Catalog number or desired MHC allele-peptide combination
- Fluorophore (PE, APC, FITC or none)
- Test size (50,150, 500, 1000 tests). One test is 10 µl reagent and sufficient to stain 1–3 x 106 lymphid cells or 1–3 x 105 clonal antigen-specific T cells
Dextramer® Positive and Negative Controls |
Test size |
Price (€)* |
Price ($)* |
Human and Mouse MHC I
|
50 tests |
1,265 | 1.490 |
150 tests |
2,360 | 2.645 | |
500 tests |
5,675 | 6.410 | |
1000 tests |
10,785 | 12.185 | |
Human MHC II |
50 tests |
1,435 | 1.645 |
150 tests |
2,760 | 3.185 | |
500 tests |
6,575 | 7.535 | |
1000 tests |
12,495 | 14.315 |
*Custom products incur an additional entry fee of 550EUR/650USD to evaluate peptide binding to the requested MHC II allele using standardized binding assays.
Dextramer® Negative Controls
Depending on your experimental setup, you can order Dextramer® Negative Controls carrying:
- a non-sense peptide sequences for Human MHC I allele
- a peptide sequence unrelated to your experiment
- a CLIP peptide for Human MHC II allele
Type |
Allele |
Antigen |
Epitope |
Cat. No. |
Human MHC I |
HLA-A*0101 |
Neg. Control |
STEGGGLAY |
WA03579 |
Human MHC I |
HLA-A*0201 |
Neg. Control |
ALIAPVHAV |
WB02666 |
Human MHC I |
HLA-A*0301 |
Neg. Control |
GLFGAGAFK |
WC03191 |
Human MHC I |
HLA-B*0801 |
Neg. Control |
AAKGRGAAL |
WI03233 |
Mouse MHC I |
H-2 Kb |
SIY* |
SIYRYYGL |
JD02164 |
Mouse MHC I |
H-2 Kd |
Neg. Control |
AYAGSAGSI |
JE03929 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*0101 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FA10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*0301 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FF10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*0401 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FB10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*0701 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FE10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*1101 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FD10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*1301 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FK10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DRB1*1501 |
CLIP (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FC10002 |
Human MHC II |
HLA-DQ2.5 |
CLIP2 (Endogenous Ag) |
PVSKMRMATPLLMQA |
FI10188 |
*H2-Kb/SIYRYYGL (SIY) can be used as a positive and negative control depending on the mouse model. For example, in OVA mouse models, it can serve as a negative control reagent, while H-2KB/SIINFEKL is the positive control reagent [1,2].
Dextramer® Positive Controls
Depending on your experimental setup, you can order Dextramer® Positive Controls that:
- recognize epitopes derived from widespread human viruses (CMV, EBV, and Flu)
- carry three viral epitopes from CMV, EBV and Flu and are then pooled
Type |
Allele |
Peptide |
Antigen |
Cat. No. |
Human MHC I |
HLA-A*0201 |
NLVPMVATV |
CMV |
WB02132 |
Human MHC I |
HLA-A*0201 |
GLCTLVAML |
EBV |
WB02130 |
Human MHC I |
HLA-A*0201 |
GILGFVFTL |
Flu |
WB02161 |
Mouse MHC I |
H-2 Kb |
SIYRYYGL |
SIY* |
JD02164 |
*H2-Kb/SIYRYYGL (SIY) can be used as a positive and negative control depending on the mouse model. For example, this peptide is expressed in certain mouse models for tumors and recognized by CD8+ T cells expressing 2C TCR. Thus, it can be used as a positive control [4,5].
Dextramer® Custom Controls
Your experimental setup may require an MHC allele that is not listed in our catalog or different specificities. Our Custom Solutions and Services Team can ensure you have the right controls for your research. Just contact us.
Selected References
- Canale FP, et al. CD39 expression defines cell exhaustion in tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells. Cancer Research 2018; 78.1: 115-128.
- Fermaintt CS, et al. A bioactive mammalian disaccharide associated with autoimmunity activates STING-TBK1-dependent immune response. Nat Commun. 2019; 10, 2377.
- Fløe A, et al. Development of an epitope panel for consistent identification of antigen-specific T-cells in humans. Immunology 2017; 152:298-307.
- Udaka K, et al. Self-MHC-restricted peptides recognized by an alloreactive T lymphocyte clone. J Immunol. 1996; 15;157(2):670-8.
- Olurinde MO, et al. Persistence of tumor-infiltrating CD8 T cells is tumor-dependent but antigen-independent. Cell Mol Immunol. 2011; 8(5):415-23.