A simple, specific high-throughput enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantitative determination of melatonin in cell culture medium

• A high-throughput, selective and simple enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for melatonin was developed.
• Melatonin from cultured chicken pineal cells on a perfusion system was measured for validation.
• The melatonin rhythm of the chicken pineal cells was rhythmic in light/dark cycle but damped in constant darkness.

A simple, specific, high-throughput enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantitative determination of melatonin was developed for directly measuring melatonin in cell culture medium with 10% FBS. This assay adopts a commercial monoclonal melatonin antibody and melatonin–HRP conjugate, so it can be applied in multiple labs rapidly with low cost compared with commercial RIA and ELISA kits. In addition, the procedure is much simpler with only four steps: 1) sample/conjugate incubation, 2) plate washing, 3) TMB color reaction and 4) reading of results. The standards of the assay cover a wide working range from 100 pg/mL to 10 ng/mL. The sensitivity was 68 pg/mL in cell culture medium with 10% FBS and 26 pg/mL in PBS with as little as 25 μL sample volume. The recovery of melatonin from cell culture medium was 101.0%. The principal cross-reacting compound was 5-methoxytryptophol (0.1%). The variation coefficients of the assay, within and between runs, ranged between 6.68% and 15.76% in cell culture medium. The mean linearity of a series diluted cell culture medium sample was 105% (CV = 5%), ranging between 98% and 111%, y = 5.5263x + 0.0646, R2 = 0.99. The assay enables small research and teaching labs to reliably measure this important neurohormone.