THE APPRAISAL OF AN AUTOMATED MULTI-IMMUNOAFFINITY CHROMATOGRAPHY SYSTEM TO DETECT ANABOLIC AGENTS IN BILE AND URINE

Screening for residues of anabolic steroids frequently requires extrac tion from tissues and fluids before analysis. Chemical procedures for these extractions can be complicated, expensive to perform and not ide al for the simultaneous extraction of analytes with different solubili ties. Extraction by multi-immunoaffinity chromatography (MIAC) may be used as an alternative. Samples are passed through a column containing a range of antibodies immobilized on an inert support. The desired an alytes are bound to their respective antibodies, washed and then elute d by a suitable solvent. The purified extracts can then be incorporate d into the analytical tests, The analytes that can be extracted presen tly are alpha-nortestosterone, zeranol, trenbolone, diethylstilboestro l, boldenone and dexamethasone. Manually, the MIAC procedure is limite d to about six columns per operator but bq automating the process usin g a robotic sample processor (RSP), 48 columns can be run simultaneous ly during the day or night. The RSP has also been adapted to transfer extracts and reagents on to ELISA plates. The automated system has pro ved to be a robust and reliable means of screening large numbers of sa mples for anabolic agents with minimal manual input.