A new rapid and simple assay for factor XIII activity using dansylcadaverine incorporation and gel filtration

A new sensitive, reproducible and simple assay for factor XIII activity was developed, in which fluorescent dansylcadaverine (DC) is incorporated into casein and DC-casein is separated from free DC by gel filtration. A good correlation was found between our method and Lorand's. The main advantages of our method are: (1) our assay technique is simple with good reproducibility and takes only a couple of hours; (2) the detectable limit of factor XIII activity is about 1% of normal pool plasma, but, if necessary, can be lowered by increasing the sample amount and lengthening the reaction time.