A time-resolved immunofluorometric assay for quantification of the bovine collectin conglutinin

A high capacity time-resolved immunofluorometric assay (TRIFMA) for the bovine collectin conglutinin was developed. The TRIFMA was constructed as a non-competitive sandwich assay based on polyclonal antibodies as the capture reagent and a novel monoclonal antibody raised against conglutinin as the detection reagent and was set up to run on an automatic analyzer designed for the TRIFMA detection system. Polyclonal antibodies immobilized on microtiter plate wells were incubated overnight at 4 degrees C with diluted plasma samples, including quality controls (QC) and dilutions of a plasma with known conglutinin concentration. Conglutinin was sandwiched between the capture antibodies and the monoclonal antibody and the detection optimised with biotin-labelled secondary antibodies and streptavidin-Eu(3+). Plates were washed four times between each step and finally incubated with enhancement solution before measuring the fluorescence. The assay detection limit was 0.34 ng/ml and the working range 0.80 ng/ml-0.20 microg/ml. Intra-plate and inter-plate coefficients of variation (CV) were in the range of 5.0-8.3% and 6.2-7.2%, respectively, at concentrations of 3.4 and 150 ng/ml. Recovery was 90.9+/-2.4% and 98.8+/-2.5% when samples were spiked with 20 ng/ml and 100 ng/ml purified bovine conglutinin (BK). No circadian rhythm (24-h variation) in conglutinin plasma levels was observed across animals, indicating that the plasma levels were not influenced by, e.g. feeding. Samples could be stored at -20 degrees Celsius and were not sensitive to repeated freezing and thawing. In conclusion, the developed TRIFMA for bovine conglutinin is specific and reliable over a measurement range covering most situations.