General Biochemistry Department, Institute for Clinical Biology, Rouen University Hospital, Rouen, France.
UNIROUEN, Normandie University, INSERM, U1239, NorDiC, Rouen, France.
Biochem Med (Zagreb). 2024 Oct 15;34(3):030702. doi: 10.11613/BM.2024.030702. Epub 2024 Aug 5.
Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) is a peptide secreted by pituitary gland that plays an important role in regulating cortisol secretion. Its determination is difficult because of instability in whole blood. Several factors that influence ACTH stability in blood before analysis have been identified: temperature, hemolysis, time to centrifugation and presence of protease inhibitors. Published results on ACTH whole blood stability seem contradictory.
We performed a stability study in 10 healthy volunteers. Three different conditions were tested: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) at 4 °C, EDTA + aprotinin at 4 °C, EDTA + aprotinin at room temperature. Stability was evaluated for 8 hours. Adrenocorticotropic hormone measurements and hemolysis index were performed respectively on Cobas e602 and c701 (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). We compared percentage deviations with total change limit using a threshold of 7.5%.
We showed that ACTH is stable 8 hours with EDTA at 4 °C, 4 hours with EDTA + aprotinin at 4 °C and 2 hours with EDTA + aprotinin at 22 °C.
Aprotinin does not appear to give ACTH greater stability but can be used without exceeding 4 hours at 4 °C. Refrigerated pouch transport also seems to be more appropriate for ACTH in whole blood.
促肾上腺皮质激素（ACTH）是由脑垂体分泌的一种肽，在调节皮质醇分泌中起着重要作用。由于全血中不稳定，其测定较为困难。在分析前已经确定了一些影响血液中 ACTH 稳定性的因素：温度、溶血、离心时间和蛋白酶抑制剂的存在。关于全血中 ACTH 稳定性的已发表结果似乎存在矛盾。
我们在 10 名健康志愿者中进行了一项稳定性研究。测试了三种不同的条件：4°C 下的乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）、4°C 下的 EDTA+抑肽酶、室温下的 EDTA+抑肽酶。稳定性评估持续 8 小时。促肾上腺皮质激素测量和溶血指数分别在 Cobas e602 和 c701（罗氏诊断公司，德国曼海姆）上进行。我们使用 7.5%的阈值比较了与总变化极限的百分比偏差。
我们表明，在 4°C 下 EDTA 中 ACTH 稳定 8 小时，在 4°C 下 EDTA+抑肽酶中稳定 4 小时，在 22°C 下 EDTA+抑肽酶中稳定 2 小时。
抑肽酶似乎并没有使 ACTH 更稳定，但可以在 4°C 下不超过 4 小时使用。冷藏袋运输也似乎更适合全血中的 ACTH。
