CELL BASED ASSAY FOR MEASUREMENT OF BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF ANTI TSHR AUTOIMMUNE ANTIBODIES

摘要

The invention relates to a bioassay for the determination of biological activity of stimulating autoimmune antibodies directed against the TSHR receptor comprising the steps of a) incubating TSHR expressing cells with a patient sample, b) detecting the intensity of a signal in the supernatant of the cells that is caused by a change of cAMP concentration in the cells resulting from TSHR stimulation, c) determining the stimulating activity of the anti TSHR autoimmune antibodies by comparing the signal intensity of step b) with the signal intensity obtained after incubation of a first reference sample with TSHR expressing cells; the invention also refers to a bioassay for the determination of the biological activity of blocking autoimmune antibodies directed against the thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR), comprising the steps of a) incubating TSHR expressing cells with a patient sample, b) detecting the intensity of a signal in the supernatant of the cells that is caused by a change of cAMP concentration in the cells resulting from TSHR stimulation, c) determining the blocking/stimulation activity of the anti TSHR auto antibodies by comparing the signal intensity of step b) with the signal intensities obtained after incubation of a first and a second reference sample with TSHR expressing cells, wherein the incubation sample of step a) and the second reference sample contain the same amount of a TSHR stimulating agent.