Automatic bioluminescent glucose determination using commercially available reagent kits coupled to the bacterial NAD(P)H-linked luciferase system.

A sensitive and specific automatic bioluminescent method is described for glucose determination in serum samples using commercially available reagent-kits. The Boehringer Gluco-quant kit, originally designed for spectrophotometric measurement, was successfully coupled to the bacterial luciferase NAD(P)H-linked system. The method's validity was proven by comparison with a spectrophotometric method. Correlation was excellent (r = 0.98, n = 50). Precision attained by 30 assays was good (CV 1.19%). The assay was verified by determining the glucose concentrations of more than 1000 serum samples. Using a microcomputer-controlled automatic luminescence analyser (Berthold LB 950 T) and reagent kits for luminometry (Boehringer Mannheim, LKB Wallac, Lumac/3M), the complete assay can be performed fully automatically with commercially available reagent kits. More than 200 samples can be assayed by one individual per day. The bioluminescence method is at least 100 times more sensitive than spectrophotometric measurements. Other reagent kits tested (Behring, Merck, Sigma) are also suitable for coupling to the NAD(P)H-linked luciferase system.