Lysozyme determined in serum or urine by a simple nephelometric method

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Clinical Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Lysozyme is a crucial enzyme involved in immune responses.
• Accurate and rapid quantification of lysozyme is essential for diagnosing various medical conditions.
• Existing methods for lysozyme determination can be time-consuming or require larger sample volumes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a rapid nephelometric procedure for lysozyme determination.
• To assess the precision, accuracy, and linearity of the new method.
• To compare the results with a conventional absorptiometric method.

Main Methods:

• A nephelometric assay was developed using Micrococcus lysodeikticus as a substrate.
• The procedure requires only 50 microliters of serum or urine.
• Quantitative results are obtained within 2 to 3 minutes.

Main Results:

• The method provides quantitative lysozyme results in 2-3 minutes using small sample volumes.
• Excellent between-day precision (3.4%) and analytical recovery (96.5-105.5%) were achieved at 12.0 mg/liter.
• Linearity was observed up to 50 mg/liter, and results correlated well with absorptiometric methods.

Conclusions:

• The described nephelometric procedure offers a fast, precise, and accurate method for lysozyme quantification.
• This assay is suitable for routine clinical laboratory use due to its speed and minimal sample requirement.
• The method provides a reliable alternative for assessing lysozyme levels in biological samples.