Beta- hCG RIA Kit

Beta HCG RIA kit description:

The Diagnostic β-hCG RIA test kit is mainly intended to quantitatively determine Total beta-hCG concentration in human serum.

Materials provided with hCG RIA Test Kit:

1. Coated Tubes: Anti –βhCG monoclonal Antibody (100 tubes)

2. Anti- βhCG monoclonal antibody Labelled with I 125 (Tracer I125)

3. βhCG test reference standard set, contains 0, 5, 20, 50,100, 500, 1000. 2500 ng/ml, ready for use

4. Serum Diluent : BSA – PBS

5. Control serum: PSA in serum with preservatives(1Vial, 0.5 ml)

Materials Required, not Provided:

1. Precision pipettes

2. Gama counter

Introduction

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) with a molecular mass of 38,000 Da is a hormone synthesized by the placental trophoblast cells during pregnancy. It is heterodimeric, with an α (alpha) and β (beta) subunit. α subunit is identical to that of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and human HCG, and β subunit is responsible to specific hormone effects of hCG molecule. Due to constructional similarities, physiological and immunological characteristics, hCG is almost identical to LH hormone. hCG has leutropic effect and supports the formation of corpus luteum; also, hCG determines the hormonal function of testes and adrenal glands of fetus. Serum hCG appears in the early stages of pregnancy, so that its concentration increases and reaches to its peak in the first trimester and then progressively decreases until the child birth. Therefore, measurement of hCG is important for monitoring of pregnancy particularly in the first trimester. In addition to early detection of pregnancy, hCG measurement is important in diagnosis of abnormal pregnancy. hCG has a slow rise and remain at lower levels in an ectopic compared to normal pregnancy. High concentrations of hCG generally can be observed in multiple pregnancy and in patients with trophoblast and non-trophoblast tumors such as testicular, breast, bronchial carcinoma and embryonic cells.

Principle of the assay

Immune radiometric assay (IRMA) kit, evaluates β-hCG based on the one step non-competitive reaction. In this type of assay, the method employs two highly specific monoclonal anti- β-hCG antibodies which recognize two different epitopes of the molecule. One antibody is coated on solid phase (coated tube), the other, specific for the β-hCG and labelled with Iodine-125, is used as a tracer. Both of these antibodies react with β-hCG antigens which are present in standard, control serum and the sample. Unspecific materials are removed in the washing step. The amount of activity form in the tube has a direct relationship to the β-hCG concentration. β-hCG standards with known concentrations are tested with the unknown samples in which the concentration of unknown samples is achieved based on the standard curve of the counted amount against concentration of β-hCG.