Measurement of inhibin A: a modification to an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay |
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Authors: | Prema P Thirunavukarasu Euan M Wallace |
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Institution: | Centre for Women's Health Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia |
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Abstract: | Inhibin A is a useful prenatal marker of Down syndrome. Currently, the available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for inhibin A are based upon the same paired monoclonal antibodies. In the present study we have confirmed for one of those ELISAs that short-term sample storage as whole blood leads to a significant decline in detectable inhibin A and that this is most likely due to erythrocyte catalase interference with a critical oxidation step in the assay. While this interference can be eliminated by heating the samples pre-assay, this process is labour intensive. In the present study we have demonstrated that the addition of 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (AT), a catalase ‘suicide’ inhibitor, also prevents the decline of inhibin A levels in samples stored as whole blood. We suggest that the addition of AT to samples prior to assay is a simple modification to the inhibin A ELISA that affords optimum performance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Keywords: | inhibin A immunoassay catalase aminotriazole |
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