Maruha Nichiro Foods, Inc. Foods and Fine Chemicals Department

【BGSTAR】

Amebocyte lysate of horseshoe crabs is highly reactive to endotoxin and has been used as an endotoxin detecting reagent in various fields.
The lysate is also reactive to βglucan.
A purified fraction is prepared when the endotoxin reactive factors and coagulogen are removed from the lysate.
The main reagent in this kit is the purified fraction added with the chromogenic synthetic substance. This reagent is not reactive to endotoxin and specifically detects β-glucan.

【β-Glucan Test Maruha】

β-Glucan Test MARUHA is an in vitro chromogenic endpoint assay for the quantitative determination of (1→3) – β-D-glucan in human plasma or serum.
Deep mycosis, an opportunistic infectious disease due to immunodeficiency increases year by year. The clinical diagnosis for deep mycosis is difficult, and mainly depends on pathologic histology.
However, amebocyte lysate of horseshoe crab, which reacts not only with endotoxin, but also (1→3) – β-glucan, a fungal cell wall components, has recently drawn attention as a highly sensitive in vitro diagnostic reagent for deep mycosis.
β-Glucan Test MARUHA reacts specifically with (1→3) – β-D-glucan, because endotoxin reactive factors are removed from the lysate.

【Crustacean kit Maruha】

The Crustacean kit ''Maruha'', designed to measure the concentration of crustacean protein in food products employs the quantitative sandwich enzyme immunosorbent assay technique. A monoclonal antibody specific for black tiger tropomyosin (BTTM) has been pre-coated onto a microplate. Standards and samples are pipetted into the wells. After any unbound substances have been washed away, an HRP-conjugated polyclonal antibody specific for BTTM is added to the wells. Following a wash to remove any unbound HRP- conjugated antibody, the remaining conjugate is allowed to react with the substrate 3, 3', 5, 5' –tetramethylbenzidine. The reaction is stopped by the addition of acidic solution, and the absorbance of the resulting yellow products is then measured at 450/600-650 nm. The absorbance is proportional to the concentration of crustacean protein. A standard curve is constructed by plotting absorbance values versus crustacean protein concentrations of calibrators, and the concentrations of crustacean protein in the test samples are determined by using this standard curve.