A high-sensitivity ELISA for detection of human FGF18 in culture supernatants from tumor cell lines
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Published on: May 9, 2025
Yuichi Tsuchiya1, Sachiko Komazawa-Sakon2, Masato Tanaka3
1Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, 5-21-16 Omori-Nishi, Ota-ku, Tokyo 143-8540, Japan; Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, 2-2-1 Miyama, Funabashi-shi, Chiba 274-8510, Japan.
Abstract:
Fibroblast growth factor 18 (FGF18) is elevated in several human cancers, such as gastrointestinal and ovarian cancers, and stimulates the proliferation of tumor cells. This suggests that FGF18 may be a promising candidate biomarker in cancer patients. However, the lack of a high-sensitivity enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) does not permit testing of this possibility. In this study, we generated monoclonal antibodies against human FGF18 and developed a high-sensitivity ELISA to measure human FGF18 at concentrations as low as 10 pg/mL. Of the eight tumor cell lines investigated, we detected human FGF18 in culture supernatants from four tumor cell lines, including HeLa, OVCAR-3, BxPC-3, and SW620 cells, albeit the production levels were relatively low in the latter two cell lines. Moreover, the in-house ELISA could detect murine FGF18 in sera from mice overexpressing murine Fgf18 in hepatocytes, although the sensitivity in detecting murine FGF18 was relatively low. This FGF18 ELISA could be a valuable tool to validate FGF18 as a potential biomarker for cancer patients and to test the contribution of FGF18 for various disease models invivo and in vitro.
