Immunoassay for thyroxine (T4) in serum using capillary electrophoresis and micromachined devices

As part of our ongoing effort to develop electrophoretic assay technology for clinical diagnostics, we describe a competitive immunoassay for the determination of serum thyroxine (T4) based on electrophoresis and laser induced fluorescence (LIF). Measurements of total T4 are useful for the clinical evaluation of thyroid function. A fluorescein thyroxine conjugate was utilized in conjunction with a polyclonal antibody preparation as assay reagents. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) conditions tolerant of the direct injection of serum without extraction or other sample preparation steps were developed and used for quantitation of total T4 in serum. We have been exploring the use of micromachined devices with arrays of channels for high assay throughput. Our assay protocol was carried in a microchip format. The results illustrate that gains in speed can be additionally achieved, with the electrophoretic separation of free from bound labelled T4 being performed in about 15 s for serum samples.