QuickStep Rat CORT (Corticosterone) ELISA Kit

Corticosterone (CORT) is the principal glucocorticoid circulating in rats and a widely measured biomarker of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation, chronic stress exposure, and circadian rhythmicity. The QuickStep ELISA Kit from Assay Genie delivers a quantitative competitive immunoassay workflow for measuring endogenous CORT in serum, urine, and saliva samples as well as plasma specimens collected from rat subjects. Supporting four specimen types from one kit reduces the need to validate separate assays when a study requires both terminal blood draws and non-invasive saliva or urine sampling.

Optimized specifically for rat reactivity, the assay helps researchers distinguish corticosterone from related steroid metabolites that can confound immunoassay readouts in rodent studies. The 96 Assays pack size accommodates typical rodent cohorts, allowing multiple treatment groups, time points, or experimental replicates to be processed together on a single plate.

Typical applications include acute and chronic stress paradigms, restraint and social defeat models, validation of adrenalectomy or glucocorticoid receptor manipulations, screening of anxiolytic or antidepressant compounds, and phenotyping of transgenic rodent lines with altered glucocorticoid signaling. Because corticosterone levels fluctuate rapidly in response to handling and sampling, the assay also supports method-development work on collection protocols that minimize stress-induced CORT elevation.