Total Bilirubin Assay Kit (TBil)
For the in vitro quantitative determination of total bilirubin in serum.
Bilirubin, a product of red blood cell destruction, is a bile pigment normally found in the blood. The average life expectancy of red blood cells is 120 days. Approximately 6 gm of hemoglobin is released per day due to their disintegration. Reticuloendothelial cells from the spleen, liver, and bone marrow phagocytize aged red cells and convert the released hemoglobin to bilirubin. Serum albumin links to bilirubin and transports it to the liver where it is metabolized. Elevated serum bilirubin can indicate impairment of liver excretory function, excessive hemolysis, or biliary tract obstruction. Hyperbilirubinemia can also be associated with obstructive jaundice, hemolytic and hepatic jaundice, infectious hepatitis, and pernicious anemia.
When a sample is mixed with the reagent containing the detergent and the vanadate, at around pH 3, total bilirubin in the sample is oxidized to biliverdin. This causes the absorbance of yellow, specific to bilirubin, to decrease. Therefore, the total bilirubin concentration in the sample can be obtained by measuring the absorbances before and after the vanadate oxidation.
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