Description
Introduction: Corticosterone is a 21 carbon glucocorticoid produced by the adrenal cortex in response to ACTH (adrenocoridotropic hormone), and is the precursor to aldosterone. The production of glucorcorticoids is increased by stress; therefore, corticosterone can be used as a biomarker of stress. Biologists often measure corticosterone in fecal material of the species they are studying. This non-invasive sample collection procedure has the advantage of not itself causing stress, and thereby increasing corticosterone levels, a common problem where samples for measurement of corticosterone are collected by more invasive means. Plasma corticosterone levels have a circadian variation, and may be important in the regulation of the sleep-wake cycle.
Principle of the Assay: This assay employs the competitive inhibition enzyme immunoassay technique. The microtiter plate provided in this kit has been pre-coated with an goat-anti-rabbit antibody. Standards or samples are added to the appropriate microtiter plate wells with an antibody specific for CORT and Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) conjugated CORT, then incubated. A competitive inhibition reaction is launched between CORT (Standards or samples) and Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) conjugated CORT with the antibody specific for CORT. The more the amount of CORT in samples, the less antibody bound by Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) conjugated CORT. The substrate solutions are added to the wells, respectively. And the color develops in opposite to the amount of CORT in the sample. The color development is stopped and the intensity of the color is measured