A sandwich enzyme immunoassay for human pancreatic elastase III

To develop a method for the determination of pancreas injuries using a pancreas-specific antigen as a marker, human elastase III was purified from the pancreas by chromatographic methods. A rabbit anti-human elastase III antibody was prepared, and this antibody was confirmed using immunoblotting to react only with elastase III among proteins from the pancreas. A sensitive sandwich enzyme immunoassay for human elastase III was developed. The detection limit for human elastase III was 0.3 pg (10 amol) per assay. Proteins extracted from the pancreas showed the strongest response, whereas reactions of the other organs were less than the detection limit. These results suggest that a sandwich enzyme immunoassay for human elastase III is useful for the determination of pancreas injury.