Quantification of tissue amyloid content in AA amyloidosis by inhibition ELISA

The determination of the amount of amyloid in tissues is important to follow the onset and the development of amyloidosis. In the present study a new procedure for quantification of amyloid proteins in AA amyloidosis is described. It involves the protein extraction from mouse and human tissue and evaluation of their amount by inhibition ELISA. The procedure is simple and may be performed using milligram amounts of tissue. The sensitivity limit of protein AA detection corresponds to 0.007mg/mg tissue. The results obtained using the inhibition ELISA were consistent with those obtained by Congo red staining. In contrast to previously developed amyloid quantification techniques, the presented procedure required only the basic equipment avail-able in most laboratories.