SENSING FATTY-ACID-BINDING PROTEIN WITH PLANAR AND FIBEROPTIC SURFACE-PLASMON RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY DEVICES

The human heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) can be used a s an early heart infarction marker in clinical diagnostics because its concentration in blood plasma increases about 1.5 to 3 hours after th e onset of an acute myocardial infarction. Hence, it is of main intere st to determine an infarct with a fast immunosensor. Surface plasmon r esonance spectroscopy (SPRS) is one of the most versatile and sensitiv e direct optical technologies used for biochemical sensors. The aim of this study is the development of a direct optical immunosensor for th e detection of H-FABP. Two different SPRS devices have been constructe d: the well-known planar configuration and a new promising fiberoptica l transducer. Both transducers are compared under the same conditions with regard to the measurement of H-FABP. They show a similar response and an excellent correspondence of the calibration curves. The detect ion limit of H-FABP in a competitive assay is about 200 ng ml(-1) in b oth cases.