BACKGROUND: The usefulness of serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) as a marker of iron deficiency is limited by lack of standardization of commercial immunoassays for sTfR. An international collaborative study was performed to evaluate a lyophilized preparation of recombinant soluble transferrin receptor (rsTfR) for its suitability to serve as a World Health Organization (WHO) Reference Reagent to standardize immunoassays for sTfR. METHODS: The concentration of pure rsTfR was determined from the A(280 nm) using the adjusted theoretical extinction coefficient and molecular weight calculated from its sequence, before dilution and lyophilization in a sTfR-depleted serum matrix. Six manufacturers and a health protection laboratory assayed the candidate Reference Reagent, coded 07/202, along with three lyophilized serum samples, using commercial assays for sTfR. RESULTS: Dose-response plots demonstrated acceptable overall parallelism between 07/202, manufacturers' in-house standards, and serum samples. However, there was poor agreement on the estimated (r)sTfR content of 07/202 and serum samples. Expressing the sTfR content of the serum samples relative to 07/202 markedly improved agreement between methods. CONCLUSIONS: Use of 07/202 would reduce inter-method variability. The preparation was established as the 1st WHO Reference Reagent for sTfR with assigned free rsTfR monomer values of 21.7 mg/L and 303 nmol/L (0.5 mL reconstitution).
BACKGROUND: The usefulness of serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) as a marker of iron deficiency is limited by lack of standardization of commercial immunoassays for sTfR. An international collaborative study was performed to evaluate a lyophilized preparation of recombinant soluble transferrin receptor (rsTfR) for its suitability to serve as a World Health Organization (WHO) Reference Reagent to standardize immunoassays for sTfR. METHODS: The concentration of pure rsTfR was determined from the A(280 nm) using the adjusted theoretical extinction coefficient and molecular weight calculated from its sequence, before dilution and lyophilization in a sTfR-depleted serum matrix. Six manufacturers and a health protection laboratory assayed the candidate Reference Reagent, coded 07/202, along with three lyophilized serum samples, using commercial assays for sTfR. RESULTS: Dose-response plots demonstrated acceptable overall parallelism between 07/202, manufacturers' in-house standards, and serum samples. However, there was poor agreement on the estimated (r)sTfR content of 07/202 and serum samples. Expressing the sTfR content of the serum samples relative to 07/202 markedly improved agreement between methods. CONCLUSIONS: Use of 07/202 would reduce inter-method variability. The preparation was established as the 1st WHO Reference Reagent for sTfR with assigned free rsTfR monomer values of 21.7 mg/L and 303 nmol/L (0.5 mL reconstitution).
Authors: Sean Lynch; Christine M Pfeiffer; Michael K Georgieff; Gary Brittenham; Susan Fairweather-Tait; Richard F Hurrell; Harry J McArdle; Daniel J Raiten Journal: J Nutr Date: 2018-06-01 Impact factor: 4.798