Ames Award Lecture 1973. Development of a Section-Bioassay for the Routine Assay of Corticotrophin

Abstract

Although the new cytochemical assays of hormones have many important advantages over radioimmunoassay they are unlikely to be of use to clinical biochemists because of their remarkably low through-put. This has been overcome by using a new approach to bioassay in which the hormone is allowed to act on sections of the target organ. The many practical obstacles to this approach have been investigated and overcome. Consequently it is now possible to assay ACTH in many samples of plasma simultaneously and at a fraction of the time required by the previously described cytochemical methods, while yet retaining the remarkable sensitivity and accuracy of these methods.