ELISA - (May/08/2015 )

Hi,

I am going to analyze stress level (cortisol) and planning to use ELISA. Could you suggest some kits which are cheap although i am aware that running an ELISA would be expensive. An alternative is to use RIA (Radioimmunoassay) and it would be nice to get suggestions for kits for using RIA also.

Cortisol samples are from "rats"

For the ELISA, you could make the buffer solutions in your lab (e.g Carbonate/bicarbonate, PBST, blocking buffer-''PBST+milk or BSA or gelatin'') and this is cheaper than buying a kit. Still you will need the reagent to develop the colour for the positive samples, and here you could either buy the ready-to-use TMB solution (if your secondary labelled with the peroxidase) from interchem; or you could buy the substrate (TMB) as a chemical powder and make the solution by adding the required materials (although we usually buy the TMB as a ready-to-use solution, the TMB chemical itself is much more cheaper).