Development and validation of an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for the quantification of carcinoembryonic antigen in mouse plasma.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a tumor associated antigen that is over-expressed in colorectal cancer and several other cancers of the gastrointestinal system. An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was developed to determine CEA concentrations in mouse plasma. The assay was validated over the standard curve range of 1-20 ng/mL. The intra-assay recoveries ranged from 93-104% with associated percent coefficients of variation (CV%) ranging between 2.5-12.8%. The inter-assay recoveries were in the range of 98.4-105% and their CV% values were between 4.77-10.1%. The assay was used to detect the presence of circulating CEA in the LS174T adenocarcinoma xenograft model and to study the pharmacokinetics of recombinant CEA in athymic mice.