Production, purification and characterization of antibodies to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D raised in chicken egg yolk.

For this sensitive RIA for 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, we used antibodies to 1 alpha,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol-3-hemisuccinate conjugated to bovine serum albumin, raised in eggs by immunization of chickens. We describe an efficient method for purification of IgG from egg yolk. We characterized these antibodies with immunoelectrophoresis and by radioimmunoassay. These antibodies show a high affinity for 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 but cross react with other vitamin D metabolites as well. Extraction and liquid chromatography are necessary to isolate the 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D from human serum or plasma before determination by RIA. The sensitivity of the assay is estimated at 5 pg/tube.

Development and evaluation of a radioimmunoassay for Arg8-vasopressin, after extraction with Sep-Pak C18.

We describe a specific double-antibody radioimmunoassay for measuring arginine vasopressin (AVP) in human plasma. Antisera of high avidity were obtained from rabbits that had been injected with AVP coupled to bovine thyroglobulin. The antibody reacts with both the tripeptide tail and the pentapeptide ring of the molecule, thereby eliminating cross reaction with oxytocin. Synthetic AVP was labeled with 125I by a modification of the Chloramine-T technique. The specific activity of the labeled hormone was 29 MBq/micrograms of AVP, as estimated by self-displacement analysis. The assay involves Sep-Pak C18 extraction of acidified (pH 4) plasma. Recovery of [3H]AVP added to plasma averaged 86.6 (SD 6.1)% (n = 14). Dilution curves for plasma showed linearity of response with concentration. The overall sensitivity was 0.3 ng/L when 2-mL plasma samples were extracted. The intra-assay CV was 7.8% at 4.8 ng/L (n = 12) and the interassay CV was 12.3% (n = 16) and 6.3% (n = 14) at 2.7 and 4.1 ng/L concentrations, respectively.

Estradiol-17 beta quantified in serum by isotope dilution-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry: reversed-phase C18 high-performance liquid chromatography compared with immuno-affinity chromatography for sample pretreatment.

Here, isotope dilution-gas chromatography-mass spectometry is used as a reference technique for determining the concentration of estradiol-17 beta in candidate human serum Reference Material. The accuracy of assigned concentrations in biologic materials is not only determined by instrumental performance, it also depends greatly on the selectivity of the procedure for isolating the analyte from the biological matrix, an issue which we consider insufficiently addressed in the literature. We introduced reversed-phase C18 high-performance liquid chromatography as a fractionation procedure in addition to the commonly used solvent extraction and column chromatography on Sephadex LH-20. The validity of this approach as part of a Reference Method for measurement of estradiol-17 beta by isotope dilution-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was investigated by comparison with immuno-affinity chromatography, which on theoretical grounds is generally considered as highly selective.