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Detection of progesterone in whole blood samples
Eva Ehrentreich-Förster1, Frieder W Scheller, Frank F Bier
1Department Molecular Bioanalytics, Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, 14558 Bergholz-Rehbrücke, Germany. eva.ehrentreich@ibmt.fhg.de
Abstract:
The progesterone concentration in blood samples can be utilised as a marker for the diagnosis of early pregnancy, endocrinopathy and virilism. Here, we describe a method for progesterone detection and measurement in whole blood samples by a surface sensitive biosensor used in conjunction with an integrated optical grating coupler. This device determines refractive index changes near the biosensor's surface. Hence, biological species bound to a surface layer can be measured in real-time without any label. For the measurements, we have modified the indirect competitive immunoassay principle. The concentration of the progesterone antibody was kept at 1 microg/ml. Progesterone concentration was determined in buffer solution and whole blood in a range between 0.005 and 10 ng/ml. The detection limit was determined to be 3 pM. The relative standard deviation was calculated to be 3.5%.