Background: FGF21 is involved in glucose and lipid metabolism. Our objective was to develop two novel sandwich immunoassays that measure active and total levels of FGF21 in human plasma.
Results: Both immunoassays utilized affinity-optimized monoclonal antibodies generated specifically for either the mid-domain or the intact C-terminus of the respective FGF21 peptides. Total FGF21 levels measured from normal human plasma samples ranged from 42 to 462 pg/ml, while active FGF21 levels ranged from 11 to 399 pg/ml. The data also suggested no significant differences in the concentrations of active FGF21 when measured from pre- and post-prandial samples.
Conclusion: We have successfully developed sensitive assays to measure active and total FGF21, which show the majority of total FGF21 in plasma is active FGF21.