San Diego, CA, May 11, 2015 --(PR.com)-- According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, from 2001 to 2006, about one quarter of the U.S. population had inadequate levels of vitamin D and about 8% were at risk for vitamin D insufficiency.
Epitope Diagnostics, Inc. has launched a novel CE marked ELISA kit to measure total 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D2 and D3.
Vitamin D is a compound that is essential to the human body. Insufficiency and deficiency increases the risk of bone fractures and debilitating bone related disease, such as osteoporosis.
Vitamin D comes in many forms such as D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecaliferol). Their hydroxylated forms, 25-OH vitamin D2 and 25-OH vitamin D3 (calcifidiol) are the biologically active forms. The function of these molecules to help regulate the uptake of calcium in the gut in order to maintain a healthy skeletal system.
Insufficient vitamin D levels correspond to low levels of calcium and increase bone related health risks. An overdose of vitamin D, which may come from taking too many supplements, can lead to vitamin D toxicity and even death. The importance of measuring this molecule cannot be overstated.
Epitope Diagnostics’ Total 25-OH Vitamin D ELISA kit is a robust 2-hour assay that reliably measures both forms of active vitamin D in serum or EDTA-plasma samples.
In current vitamin D assays, blood samples must be prepared and processed to release vitamin from its bound form before it can be measured with an assay. The Epitope Diagnostics Total 25-OH Vitamin D ELISA kit is unique in that a special buffer has been included to separate vitamin D from its binding protein in the assay well so no extra sample processing steps are required.
In addition, this kit has been streamlined to be user friendly and time efficient. It features a set of liquid standards and controls, ready-to-use liquid tracer, and liquid biotinylated vitamin D analog. It has a high analytical sensitivity of 0.96 ng/ml with the highest calibrator being 150 ng/ml.
“Vitamin D deficiency is a serious problem, especially now when so many people in our community don’t get enough of it. On the other hand, it’s easy to get supplements at variable doses over the counter these days so vitamin D overdose is also a concern,” said Ping Gao, President and CEO. “We’re proud to present this kit as part of the solution.”
press release