Molecular Distinction of Circulating Pregnancy- Associated Plasma Protein A in Myocardial

Background: In the blood of pregnant women, pregnan-cy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) is present as a covalent complex with the proform of eosinophil major basic protein (proMBP). Recently, increased serum con-centrations of PAPP-A have been found in acute coro-nary syndromes (ACS). The aim of this study was to investigate whether the circulating PAPP-A in ACS is the same as that in pregnancy. Methods:We developed two time-resolved immunoflu-orometric assays based on a relative epitope map con-structed by the use of 17 monoclonal antibodies. One assay, which measured total PAPP-A, used two PAPP-A subunit-specific antibodies. The other assay, which measured PAPP-A/proMBP complex, used one proMBP subunit-specific antibody and one PAPP-A subunit