Description
Introduction: Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) is a hormone and neurotransmitter. When produced in the body it increases heart rate, contracts blood vessels, dilates air passages and participates in the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system. It is a catecholamine, a monoamine produced only by the adrenal glands from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. The term adrenaline is derived from the Latin roots ad- and renes and literally means on the kidney, in reference to the adrenal gland's anatomic location on the kidney. The Greek roots epi- and nephros have similar meanings, and give rise to epinephrine. The term epinephrine is often shortened to epi in medical jargon. Adrenal extracts containing adrenaline were first obtained by Polish physiologist Napoleon Cybulski in 1895. These extracts, which he called "nadnerczyna", contained epinephrine and other catecholamines. Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine and his assistant Keizo Uenaka independently discovered adrenaline in 1900.In 1901, Takamine successfully isolated and purified the hormone from the adrenal glands of sheep and oxen. Adrenaline was first synthesized in the laboratory by Friedrich Stolz and Henry Drysdale Dakin, independently, in 1904.
Principle of the Assay: The microtiter plate provided in this kit has been pre-coated with an goat-anti-rabbit antibody. Standards or samples are then added to the appropriate microtiter plate wells with a HRP-conjugated EPI and antibody preparation specific for EPI and incubated. Then substrate solutions are added to each well. The enzyme-substrate reaction is terminated by the addition of a sulphuric acid solution and the color change is measured spectrophotometrically at a wavelength of 450 nm +/- 2 nm. The concentration of EPI in the samples is then determined by comparing the O.D. of the samples to the standard curve