Enhanced chemiluminescence assay vs colorimetric assay for measurement of the total antioxidant capacity of human seminal plasma

J Androl. 2003 Sep-Oct;24(5):676-80. doi: 10.1002/j.1939-4640.2003.tb02726.x.

Abstract

Although the enhanced chemiluminescence assay is commonly used to measure the nonenzymatic total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of the human seminal plasma, it is cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming. We describe herein an alternate method to measure TAC that is based on the ability of antioxidants in seminal plasma to interfere with a reaction between 2,2'-azino-di-[3-ethylbenzthiazoline sulphonate] and metmyoglobin with H(2)O(2). This reaction produces a relatively stable blue-green color with absorbance maxima at 600 nm. We compared this colorimetric assay with our established chemiluminescence method and assessed quality control parameters (ie, intra-assay and interassay variabilities) in addition to intraobserver and interobserver differences. Our results show that the colorimetric assay was fairly predictive of antioxidant capacity similar to the chemiluminescence assay (P <.001). Furthermore, there was a high level of agreement between the duplicate measures by the same observer (intraobserver) and intra-assay variability, with a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.99. The interassay coefficient of variation was 4.7% (overall). The mean +/- SD of the difference between the 2 observers was 2.98% +/- 4.1%. In conclusion, we found that the colorimetric assay is a reliable and accurate method to evaluate seminal TAC, and it could be used as a simpler, rapid, and cheaper alternative to the chemiluminescence assay.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Antioxidants*
  • Chemistry, Clinical / methods*
  • Chemistry, Clinical / standards
  • Chromans*
  • Humans
  • Luminescent Measurements
  • Male
  • Observer Variation
  • Reactive Oxygen Species / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Semen / metabolism*
  • Spectrophotometry / methods*
  • Spectrophotometry / standards

Substances

  • Antioxidants
  • Chromans
  • Reactive Oxygen Species
  • 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid