Comparison between capillary electrophoresis and fluorescence anisotropy competitive immunoassay for glucagon

Glucagon plays a crucial role in regulating glucose homeostasis; unfortunately, the mechanisms controlling its release are still unclear. Capillary electrophoresis (CE)- and fluorescence anisotropy (FA)-immunoassays (IA) have been used for online measurements of hormone secretion on microfluidic platforms, although their use in glucagon assays is less common. We set out to compare a glucagon-competitive IA using these two techniques. Theoretical calibration curves were generated for both CE- and FA–IA and results indicated that CE-IA provided higher sensitivity than FA–IA. These results were confirmed in an experiment where both assays showed limits of detection (LOD) of 30 nM, but the CE-IA had ∼300-fold larger sensitivity from 0 to 200 nM glucagon. However, in online experiments where reagents were mixed within the device, the sensitivity of the CE-IA was reduced ∼3-fold resulting in a higher LOD of 70 nM, whereas the FA–IA remained essentially unchanged. This lowered sensitivity in the online CE-IA was likely due to poor sampling by electroosmotic flow from the high salt solution necessary in online experiments, whereas pressure-based sampling used in FA–IA was not affected. We conclude that FA–IA, despite lowered sensitivity, is more suitable for online mixing scenarios due to the ability to use pressure-driven flow and other practical advantages such as the use of larger channels.