prolactin analysis

[andrewn]

This may well be a naive question but can anyone advise me as to whether analysis of prolactin is possible by HPLC (using any subsequent detection system?). Also, if it isn't possible (and no-one seems to do it so I guess that is saying something!) why is it not possible?

thanks a lot
nick

[HW Mueller]

There is nothing special regarding prolactin and HPLC. I am sure some people have played with it using RP, size exclusion (SEC), or affinity chromatography. Also, chromatography is used in isolation and purification of prolactin. Quantitative analysis of prolactin in blood will be a tremendously tedious affair (low concentration, read something on proteomics to get an idea). Physicians are happy with immunoassays which always give numbers (in that case they seem to correlate reasonably with pituitary illness). I wanted to check into this, started with growth hormone ("highly purified" samples) and SEC, nobody cared so I quit.