"depending on something" ... singular or plural

Question

I'm writing a paper in which the experimental results with two different antibodies are compared across different brain regions.

I want to write something like:

We used antibodies A and B for this experiment. We obtained distinct results depending on the antibody and brain region.

Here each experiment only uses either one of the two antibodies.

I wonder if "depending on" should be followed by "the antibodies and brain regions" (the + plural) or "the antibody and brain region" (the + singular).

Actually, I have no problem with "depending on antibody and brain region", i.e. uncountable and abstract use of nouns without an article. This kind of example phrase can be found in dictionaries.

However, as soon as there comes a "the", I cannot really tell what is right.

If I consider the following sentence,

We obtained distinct results depending on the antibody and brain region examined.

then "the + singular" sounds natural to me, for only one antibody or region can be examined at one time.

Could someone please give me some advice on this?

Answer 1

Mostly for the sake of parallel phrase structure but also for terminological accuracy, adding tested and the would produce a gem acceptable to any medical journal:

We obtained distinct results depending on the antibody tested and the brain region examined.

Plural agreement among nouns would, as noted in the question, decrease the scientific precision of the sentence:

We obtained distinct results depending on the antibodies tested and the brain regions examined.

The following variation is a partial concession to the grammar of plurals that also avoids the slightly ambiguous use of depending:

We obtained distinct results for different combinations of antibody and brain region.