Immunoenzyme determination of total serum ceruloplasmin. Application to Wilson disease

Enzyme immunoassay for ceruloplasmin (CP)*, employing monospecific CP antibodies labeled with horse radish peroxidase was developed. This method permits to determine total content of CP, which is present in Wilson disease patients' blood in enzymatically active and enzymatically inactive forms. The evidence is presented that the method can be used for a direct determination of CP in blood serum. The minimal CP concentration which may be determined by enzyme immunoassay (IEA) is 5.10(-9) g/ml. The method was used for determination of CP concentrations in Wilson disease patients' blood with different disease severity. Analysis of blood samples taken from 6 Wilson disease patients with the use of IEA method revealed similar total CP concentrations. At the same time, the oxidase activities of CP in the blood of different patients varied more than sevenfold.