Rat Alpha-Fetoprotein ELISA Kit

The Antibodies.com Rat Alpha-Fetoprotein ELISA Kit is a quantitative immunoassay for measuring AFP levels in rat specimens including serum, liver tissue homogenates, and plasma. Alpha-fetoprotein is a 70 kDa glycoprotein synthesized during fetal development by the yolk sac and liver, and in adult rats it serves as a circulating biomarker for hepatocellular injury, hepatic regeneration, and chemical hepatocarcinogenesis studies.

Each kit is supplied as a 48-test configuration containing a pre-coated microplate, lyophilized standards, biotinylated detection antibody, streptavidin-HRP conjugate, wash buffer, substrate solution, and stop reagent. Researchers working in toxicology, oncology, developmental biology, and hepatic disease models commonly use this kit to track AFP expression across experimental treatment groups and to compare knockout or treated cohorts against controls.

Before running the assay, allow all reagents to equilibrate to room temperature and prepare standard dilutions fresh for each plate. Reconstituted standard should be used promptly or aliquoted and stored frozen to limit freeze-thaw cycles, which can degrade protein integrity and reduce antibody binding activity. Unused strips from the 48-well plate should be returned to the foil pouch with desiccant and resealed to preserve capture-antibody performance.

Typical protocols incubate samples and standards in the coated wells, follow with detection antibody and HRP steps, and read absorbance on a standard plate reader. Run all standards and unknowns in duplicate and include an appropriate dilution series to confirm parallelism with the standard curve when working with novel sample matrices.