Quantitation of estradiol by competitive light‐initiated chemiluminescent assay using estriol as competitive antigen

Abstract Background Light‐initiated chemiluminescent assays (LICA) are homogeneous assays that are sensitive, specific, and free of separation and washing steps and have high throughput and high precision. Methods In this research, we developed a competitive method by LICA to achieve accurate quantification of estradiol (E2) in human serum. E2 competed with estriol (E3) for binding to anti‐human E2 antibodies. E3 was linked to biotin via bovine serum albumin as a linker. As this assay used competition between the labeled tracer and the analyte, an increase in E2 concentration will cause a signal decrease. Results The expected detection range of E2 was 20‐5000 pg/mL. The analytical and functional sensitivities were 7.16 and 13.7 pg/mL, respectively. The intra‐ and inter‐assay coefficients of variation were both below 15%, and the recovery rate ranged from 97.5% to 106.8%. The interference rates ranged from −3.6% to 5.4% and met detection requirements for E2 in hyperbilirubinemia, hemolysis, and lipemia in clinical samples. In addition, the cross‐reactivity rates between E2 and structural analogs and some reproductive hormones varied from 1.9% to 10.6% which showed that LICA is highly specific for E2. Moreover, our results showed high accordance with the IMMULITE 2000 ( y  = 0.6695 x  + 47.92, r 2  = .843) and VIDAS systems ( y  = 1.099 x  − 821.5, r 2  = .9392). Conclusion Our data show that the LICA, which is easy to automate, is a promising technique for quantification of E2 in human serum and could be used for clinical detection.