An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system for quantitative determination of calphobindin I, a new placental anticoagulant protein, and its application to various specimens.

We developed a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system for calphobindin I (CPB-I), a new placental coagulation inhibitor, using two monoclonal antibodies. This ELISA system can detect CPB-I at concentrations of between 0.4 and 25 ng/ml in buffer and allow almost quantitative determination of it in human plasma. Using this ELISA system, CPB-I levels in many kinds of specimens were measured. Levels in the plasma and urine of women were as low as 10 ng/ml, and no significant differences were observed throughout the trimesters of pregnancy and during different stages of the menstrual cycle. Toxemic patients were slightly higher in CPB-I levels than normal pregnant women, and levels in body fluids such as the amniotic fluid, saliva, milk, ascites, and semen were higher than those in the plasma. The high levels of CPB-I were found, being in the order of micrograms/ml, in the ascites of carcinomatous peritonitis as well as seminal plasma. Measurements of the levels in ovarian follicular fluid samples at different stages of the menstrual cycle showed that those in the immature and atretic stages were higher than those in mature stages. CPB-I levels in many types of cultured human cells ranged from 0.023 to 10.30 micrograms/mg protein, and levels in cultured human lymphocytes were less than those in other types of cells measured. Little of this inhibitor was secreted into media from cultured human lymphocytes, and it was found in all measured tissues of Macacus irus at levels ranging from 0.232 to 1.557 micrograms/mg protein. From these results, it was suggested that CPB-I might be a ubiquitous protein in the body that has an important physiological role.