Measurement of porcine haptoglobin in meat juice using surface acoustic wave biosensor technology

- Current measurement methods of porcine haptoglobin are tedious and time consuming.
- A surface acoustic wave biosensor has been applied.
- Results of ELISA and biosensor are well correlated.
- SAW biosensors can be used to fasten and automate haptoglobin measurements.

Aim of the study was the application of biosensor technique to measure the concentration of an acute phase protein (APP) within complex matrices from animal origin. For the first time, acute phase protein haptoglobin (Hp) was detected from unpurified meat juice of slaughter pigs by a label-free biosensor-system, the SAW-based sam®5 system. The system uses a sensor chip with specific antibodies to catch Hp while the mass-related phase shift is measured. The concentration is calculated as a function of these measured phase shifts. The results correlate very well with reference measurement results obtained by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), R = 0.98. The robust setup of the surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based system and its ability to measure within very short time periods qualifies it for large-scale analyses and is apt to identify rapidly pigs in the meat production process whose consumption would have an increased risk for consumers.