An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the determination of bovine prolactin in plasma

Highly purified pituitary bovine prolactin (bPRL) has been used in a sensitive non-competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of prolactin (PRL) concentrations in plasma. In this assay affinity purified polyclonal antibodies were immobilized to the solid phase in order to capture the antigen, and were also used biotinylated as the detector antibody. The method was found to be reproducible (3% variability between calibration curves) and has been optimized for measuring bPRL concentration in plasma samples, giving an intra-assay coefficient of variation of about 5% and an interassay coefficient of variation of about 9%. The sensitivity of the assay was found to be as low as 0.1 ng/ml of bPRL.