This ELISA kit is designed to assay type II collagen antibodies in human sera. The microtiter strips provided in the kit have been coated with human type II collagen. To reduce non-specific binding, we have incorporated unique blocking agents which inhibit the hydrophobic binding of immunoreactive serum components in sample specimens onto plastic surfaces and thus reduce the background levels.
Collagen is an inert, rigid protein found predominantly in skin, ligaments, bones and teeth. Its most distinctive attribute, essential to a transmitter of mechanical force, is inelasticity. Its fundamental structural unit is tropo-collagen, a molecular rod about 2600Å in length and 15Å in diameter and 300,000 molecular weight. In tendons these macromolecules, grouped as collagen fibrils, run parallel to the axis. In skin the fibrils are interlaced and branched.
