This ELISA kit provides quantitative measurement of interleukin-29 (IL-29/IFN-λ1) in human samples, supporting research into type III interferon-mediated antiviral and mucosal immune responses. Because IL-29 is often expressed at low levels in circulation and is transiently induced during viral infection or at epithelial barrier surfaces, detecting it requires an assay calibrated for the picogram-per-milliliter range with validated performance across diverse sample matrices.
Detection Range: The 3.12–200 pg/mL range aligns with reported IL-29 concentrations in human serum and plasma during acute viral infections such as hepatitis C and influenza, where levels typically fall in the low-to-mid picogram range. Most stimulated samples can be measured directly without extensive dilution.
Sensitivity: At 1.56 pg/mL, the kit can detect IL-29 in baseline or early-infection samples where type III interferon induction is minimal, including unstimulated PBMC supernatants or serum from chronically infected patients with dampened IFN-λ responses.
Sample Compatibility: Validation across serum, plasma, and tissue homogenates enables researchers to correlate systemic IL-29 levels with local expression at mucosal sites such as lung, liver, or intestinal tissue — critical for studying compartmentalized antiviral immunity.
Assay Efficiency: The 1–5 hour protocol using only 50–100 µL of sample accommodates limited-volume clinical specimens and time-course studies requiring multiple sampling points from the same donor.
This kit is well-suited for studies of hepatitis C pathogenesis, respiratory viral immunity, and IFN-λ polymorphism-associated treatment response.