Comparison of different antibody-conjugate derivatives for the development of a sensitive and specific progesterone assay.
Antibodies raised against progesterone with hormone-carrier protein bridges placed at four different carbon positions were used to compare the sensitivity and specificity of homologous and heterologous enzyme-hormone conjugates. All heterologous assays were at least twice as sensitive as the corresponding homologous assays. The best results were obtained by using antibodies against 7 alpha-carboxyethyl-thioether-progesterone with 6 beta-hemisuccinate-progesterone conjugate (or hemimaleate). The sensitivity with human sera was 0.25 ng ml-1 and, the highest crossreaction 10% with 5 beta-pregnane-3,20-dione, and reproducibility, recovery and accuracy were satisfactory. The correlation coefficient with radioimmunoassay in 103 human sera tested was r = 0.915. The assay was successfully applied for the diagnosis of pregnancy in dairy cattle.
Department of Immunology and Diagnostics, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Crete, Greece.
G
G
Hatzidakis
A
A
Stefanakis
E
E
Krambovitis
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006908:Hydroxyprogesterones; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008298:Maleates; D011247:Pregnancy; D011374:Progesterone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013386:Succinates
D006908:Hydroxyprogesterones; D008298:Maleates; D013386:Succinates; C081385:progesterone 6-hemimaleate; C081383:7-(carboxyethylthio)progesterone; D011374:Progesterone; C081384:progesterone 6-hemisuccinate; C030250:progesterone 11-hemisuccinate