Abstract
We have developed a competitive enzyme immunoassay to determine serum α-fetoprotein for use in clinical diagnosis. β-Galactosidase is employed as a label enzyme with anti-human α-fetoprotein antibody-coated polystyrene beads. By the proposed method, human α-fetoprotein could be determined in the range of 0.1 to 100μg/ml within 2h. Recovery of α-fetoprotein from various serum samples was good. The correlation coefficient between the proposed method and the sandwich enzyme immunoassay, which is commercially available, was 0.969. Coefficients of variation in the within- and between-assays were 7.7 to 9.3% and 6.6 to 20.7%, respectively. This method is rapid, simple and accurate, and is eminently suitable for use as a screening procedure for hepatoma and neural tube defects.
