Oxytocin
The Oxytocin ELISA kit is a competitive immunoassay for the quantitative determination of Oxytocin in samples.
Oxytocin is a neurohypophysial peptide which is produced in the paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus and stored in the posterior pituitary. The molecule consists of nine amino acids linked with a [1-6] disulfide bond and a semi-flexible carboxyamidated tail. A hormone once thought to be limited to female smooth muscle reproductive physiology, more current findings have determined that oxytocin also functions as a neurotransmitter, may be involved in neuropsychiatric disorders, social/sexual behavior4 and is important in male reproductive physiology. Oxytocin and the related neurohypophysial peptide, Arg8-Vasopressin, maintain renal water and sodium balance.
Highly conserved across species boundaries, oxytocin-like neurohypophysial peptides are substituted primarily at residues 4 and/or 8. In the oxytocin-like peptide, mesotocin, a common peptide found in some fishes, reptiles, amphibians, marsupials and nonmammalian tetrapods, the leucine at residue is substituted for isoleucine. Acting in classical endocrine fashion, Oxytocin elicits regulatory effects by binding specific cell surface receptors which in turn initiate a secondary intracellular response cascade via a phosphoinositide signaling pathway8.
The Oxytocin ELISA kit is a competitive immunoassay for the quantitative determination of Oxytocin in samples.
The kit uses a polyclonal antibody to Oxytocin to bind, in a competitive manner, the Oxytocin in the standard or sample or an alkaline phosphatase molecule which has Oxytocin covalently attached to it. After a simultaneous incubation at 4°C the excess reagents are washed away and substrate is added. After a short incubation time the enzyme reaction is stopped and the yellow color generated read on a microplate reader at 405 nm.
The intensity of the bound yellow color is inversely proportional to the concentration of Oxytocin in either standards or samples. The measured optical density is used to calculate the concentration of Oxytocin.
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