Use of Progesterone-3(O-Carboxymethyl Oxime)-Horseradish Peroxidase in a Sensitive Microtitre-Plate EIA and Its Application to a Visual Membrane EIA of Progesterone

Abstract

A simple method of visual membrane enzyme-immunoassay (EIA) for the detection of progesterone is described. When two types of progesterone-horseradish peroxidase (HRP) tracers were challenged for binding, in the presence of progesterone, to the monoclonal anti progesterone antibody, 15A, coated on the microtitre plate, the HRP conjugated at the C-3 position (A-ring) of progesterone competed more effectively with progesterone to the binding site of the monoclonal antibody (mAb) than HRP conjugated at the C-11 position of the C-ring. By using this combination of mAb, 15A, and progesterone-3(O-carboxymethyloxime)-HRP (P-3CMO-HRP), we developed a visual membrane EIA system in which free progesterone in the sample could be quantified by the degree of color development. In this system, free progesterone competed with P-3CMO-HRP for binding sites of mAb immobilized on the nitrocellulose membrane. The stable grey color was formed on the surface of membrane for progesterone-negative and no color for progesterone-positive sample using 3,3′-diaminobenzidine (DAB) with Co²⁺ as an insoluble substrate solution. To examine whether tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) can substitute for DAB in membrane EIA, an experiment was conducted where TMB was used as an insoluble substrate.