Development of an Immunoassay to Measure Progesterone using Printed Biosensors, and its Application to the Assessment of Ovarian Function in the Numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus)

Abstract

A biosensor system was developed to measure progesterone levels in the urine of female numbats (Myrmecobius fasciata) as an index of ovarian function. Screen printed sensors were coated with a monoclonal progesterone antibody, and incubated in a mixture of sample/standard and progesterone-3-CMO-horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The difference in potential between the working and reference electrode was measured, after exposure to an HRP substrate. EIA and biosensor standard curves showed parallelism, and the biosensor gave values similar (r = 0.83) to the conventional EIA. Progesterone concentrations at different stages of the oestrus cycle were not significantly different to those obtained by EIA.

Reproductive biology of captive southern hairy-nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons). Part 1: oestrous cycle characterisation

“…Non-invasive collection methods have proven to be an effective tool for monitoring reproduction in a variety of wildlife species (Monfort 2003;Schwarzenberger 2007;Schwarzenberger and Brown 2013;Kersey and Dehnhard 2014), including marsupial species (Hamilton et al 2000;Matson et al 2008;Ditcham et al 2009;Takahashi et al 2009;Hogan et al 2010aHogan et al , 2010bHogan et al , 2010cHogan et al , 2011Hogan et al , 2012Pollock et al 2010;Lambert et al 2011;Descovich et al 2012aDescovich et al , 2012bKeeley et al 2012;Narayan et al 2012Narayan et al , 2013Du et al 2017;Swinbourne et al 2017b). In the SHNW, the non-invasive collection and analysis of faecal samples has provided helpful (Paris et al 2002;Hogan et al 2010aHogan et al , 2010bHogan et al , 2010c albeit limited information regarding female reproduction based on faecal progesterone metabolites that appear to be stable and readily measured.…”