Why measure glucagon?
Glucagon is the most important counter-regulatory hormone to insulin in blood glucose homeostasis. It elevates blood glucose levels by stimulating gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis while inhibiting glycogenesis and glycolysis mainly in the liver. Normal glucagon levels are very low in healthy individuals (less than 200 pg/ml) compared to glucagon levels in severe pathophysiological states, such as Type 1 diabetes. As a result, glucagon and its receptors have recently been actively pursued as therapeutic targets. Therefore, it is crucial to have available an assay for accurately, precisely and rapidly quantifying glucagon in blood samples.
A new ELISA meets the glucagon challenge
The development of an effective glucagon ELISA has long delayed because of the difficulty in raising specific antibodies to mature glucagon. Mature glucagon is a peptide of 29 amino acids and its amino acid sequence highly conserved across the animal kingdom. Glucagon is synthesized from preproglucagon gene in pancreatic a-cells, processed and then secreted into bloodstream. However, many immunoreactive glucagon forms have been identified in blood. EMD Millipore has developed a new, highly specific glucagon chemiluminescent ELISA kit with no cross-reactivity to miniglucagon or glucagon 1-18 and less than 5 percent cross-reactivity to oxyntomodulin.
Advantages of EMD Millipore's Glucagon ELISA Kit
Starting with 300 µL serum/plasma sample, this assay, including sample extraction, can be completed within a working day. With slight modifications and longer incubation time (24 ~ 48 hours), the same kit can be used to measure glucagon in mouse serum/plasma. The level of glucagon in plasma samples from normal human subjects as measured using the EMD Millipore ELISA kit, in contrast to ELISA kits from competing suppliers, agree well with published glucagon levels derived from RIA, the long-held gold standard method for glucagon assay. Compared to RIA, however, this ELISA enables glucagon quantitation with far greater convenience and throughput. Therefore, this ELISA kit should be easily incorporated into new and ongoing research, preclinical and clinical studies of metabolism.
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