Native and degraded fibronectin: new immunological methods for distinction.

Two methods for quantitative determination of the high molecular weight glycoprotein, fibronectin, have been developed. Both methods are based on enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent (ELISA) techniques. In the first of the methods an antibody against fibronectin is used to trap the antigen. This double antibody technique can detect a slight decrease in the concentration of fibronectin stored for 5 days compared to the amount of fibronectin in the freshly purified preparation. In the second method, gelatin which is known to bind specifically to fibronectin, is used to catch fibronectin. By this method less than 1% of the fibronectin present in a freshly prepared preparation is measured after storage for 5 days. The results obtained with the two methods applied on a freshly prepared and a stored fibronectin are in agreement with sodium dodecylsulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by immunoblotting before and after gelatin-Sepharose adsorption. These techniques demonstrate that all the freshly prepared fibronectin adsorbs to gelatin-Sepharose, while stored fibronectin, which is broken down to numerous peptides, still reacts with the fibronectin antibody, but does not adsorb to gelatin-Sepharose. The two ELISA techniques were applied on amniotic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid and urine. The results indicated significant degradation of fibronectin in urine, and less degradation of fibronectin in amniotic and spinal fluid.