1987 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 84-91
We established a sandwich enzyme immunoassay (ETA) system for human epidermal growth factor, which has a high sensitivity (500fg/tube) and makes it possible to measure directly a minute amount of endogenous human EGF in biological fluids such as serum or urine. EGF in plasma was not detected (less than 0.05ng/ml). The concentrations of serum EGF in normal adult males and females were 0.57 and 0.46ng/ml respectively. Urinary EGF levels were 63.8ng/ml for males, and 87.2ng/ml for females. There was no correlation between serum and urinary EGF levels. It seems most likely that majority of urinary EGF is not derived from blood but from kidney itself.