Abstract
The latex turbidimetric immunoassay (LTIA) has gained wide acceptance for use in the quantitative analysis of matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) in recent years. Sekisui Chemical, together with Eiken Chemical, has recently developed new MMP-3 reagents on the basis of the LTIA principle. We evaluated the basic performance of these two reagents and compared them with ELISA. Experiments on the basic performance produced promising results; in particular, excellent linearity was observed at the upper levels as compared with ELISA. The correlation of the two new reagents with ELISA was also good. However, discrepancies were seen in some samples. Blocking tests using immunoglobulin, RF and heterophile antibody were also carried out, and we found that nonspecific reactions were present in ELISA. Finally, we also found that steroids have no direct effect on this measurement system.
