Reagents for Luminex® assays were custom developed by R&D Systems. Thirteen biomarkers were selected and divided into 2 panels based on relative plasma abundance and assay dynamic range. Panel 1 included the following 5 high-abundance biomarkers tested at a dilution of 1:30: sVCAM-1, sICAM-1, sTNFR-1, CHI3L1, Cystatin C. Panel 2 included the following 8 low-abundance biomarkers tested at a dilution of 1:3: Angiopoeitin-2 (Ang-2), sFlt-1, IL-6, IP-10, Ang-1, IL-8, sTREM-1, Granzyme B. The 5 biomarkers that did not overlap between the platforms are presented in S1 Table . Unfiltered plasma was diluted using diluents supplied by the manufacturer. Each 96-well plate included 7-fold serial dilutions of standards tested in duplicate and 72 patient samples, 8 of which were tested in duplicate. A total of 6 batches of Luminex Panel 1 and 2 were necessary to complete analysis of 410 samples. Assays were performed according to manufacturer’s magnetic Luminex® screening assay protocol [34 ]. Briefly, a microparticle cocktail, diluted plasma, and biomarker standards were added to a 96-well plate. Following a 2-hour incubation, plates were washed and a biotin antibody cocktail was added. After a 1-hour incubation, plates were washed and streptavidin-Phycoerythrin (PE) was added for 30-min, followed by a final wash and resuspension in wash buffer. All incubations were done at room temperature on a microplate shaker at 800 rpm. Plates were read immediately on the MAGPIX® instrument and raw data were analyzed using the xPONENT® software. Values outside the lower limit of quantification were assigned a value of 1/3 of the lower limit of the standard curve.
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