The investigation of cytosolic phospholipase A₂ using ELISA

Abstract 

Two studies of the behaviour of cytosolic phospholipase A₂ (cPLA₂) in the red blood cell (RBC), as measured by ELISA, are described. In the first study we show a significant increase in cPLA₂ in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls and suggest that this measure, if corroborated, could be used as a diagnostic marker. In a second study we found that washing the RBC introduced an unknown confounding variable which led us to reject this study. A subsequent investigation of washing red cells showed that the washing effect may be due to a plasma factor likely to be more than 5kDa MW which can be removed from red cells by washing with buffers. When the cells are washed, the concentration of cPLA₂ in the red cell, as measured by ELISA, significantly increases. We advise against washing the red cell in any study that involves measuring cPLA₂ by ELISA.

Keywords:  Cytosolic phospholipase A₂, Red blood cells, Schizophrenia, Washing red blood cells, ELISA