Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in fecal samples: rapid detection by surface plasmon resonance

Abstract

Abstract Background The development of biosensors, based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology, enables monitoring of a variety of biospecific interactions without the need for chemical-, biological- or radiological-labelled reagents. Method We utilised SPR to detect hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in reconstituted faecal samples and studied samples from patients with infectious gastroenteritis (n = 20) and normal controls (n = 10). Mouse anti-human HGF monoclonal antibodies and recombinant human HGF receptor (c-Met)/Fc chimera were immobilised in flow cells of a CM5 biosensor chip. Results We found that infectious gastroenteritis produced a higher signal response compared to controls, due to binding of HGF to monoclonal anti-HGF antibody as well as binding of HGF to c-Met receptor (p 0.001). The signal response decreased significantly (p Conclusion Determination of HGF by SPR might be beneficial in diagnosis of acute situations that present with symptoms of gastroenteritis and may, possibly, guide appropriate medical treatments. This is to our knowledge the first report on the use of SPR for detection of HGF in faeces samples.