Flow injection immunoassay for carcinoembryonic antigen combined with time-resolved fluorometric detection

Time-resolved fluorescence has been developed for immunoassay to obtain higher sensitivity than usual immunoassays. In this paper, a simple, sensitive and specific method was developed for immunoassay of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) by combining time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TRFIA) and flow injection analysis. Based on a sandwich immunoassay format, a monoclonal antibody immobilized immunoaffinity column inserted in a flow system was used for immunoreactions. The cleaved solution was collected after the reaction between the immunocomplex in the immunoaffinity column and the enhancement solution that was used to cleave the Eu-labels from the immunocomplex, and then detected by time-resolved fluorescence. Serum CEA could be detected in the linear range from 2.5 to 100 ng/ml with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 and the detection limit of 1.0 ng/ml. Twenty human serum samples detected by this method were in good agreement with the results obtained by the electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. This method could be further developed for fast practical clinical detection of serum CEA levels.