The study of direct ELISA and competitive ELISA for rabbit metallothionein: correlation of induction with zinc

On the basis of the purification of metallothionein (MT) from human fetal l iver, the purified polyclonal antibody of rabbit anti-human MT-1 was prepar ed. Direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for MT in rabbit tissu es was established. Direct ELISA is a direct binding assay. Its sensitivity is 0.4 ng (4 ng/ml). MT contents of control rabbit liver and kidney are 24 0 mug/g and 200 mug/g wet weight tissue, respectively. MT contents of high induction rabbit liver and kidney are 3130 mug/g and 3570 mug/g wet weight tissue, respectively. Competitive ELISA for MT in erythrocyte lysate was de termined. Coating concentration is 20ng/ml; antibody dilution is 1:2000; co mpetitive MT concentrations are 40-2500 ng/ml. Its sensitivity extends to 2 ng (40 ng/ml). MT concentration in the control rabbit erythrocyte lysate i s 10.52 mug/g total lysate protein; it is 43.16 mug/g total lysate protein in the low induction group, and 94.93 mg/g total lysate protein in the high induction group.