Architect clinical chemistry analyser

Serum ALT and GGT were measured by standard kinetic methods following recommendations of the European Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (ECCLS) on an Abbott Architect clinical chemistry analyser (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA).

We used electro-chemiluminescence to measure the immune mediators in the colostrum samples, for HGF and TGFβ1-3 (MesoScale Discovery, Rockville, MD, USA). LThe laboratory experiments were described in detail elsewhere [26 (link)]. In brief, the samples were run in duplicate, according to the manufacturer’s protocol, using an 8-point standard curve. No dilution was used for the HGF, and a 1:2 dilution was used for the TGFβ assays, following pilot experiments, which showed that the TGFβ2 level in the undiluted milk samples was often greater than the upper limit of detection.
Using an Abbott Architect clinical chemistry analyser^® (Abbott, Abbott Park, IL, USA.), the IgA concentration analysis was conducted as described earlier [35 (link)]. The colostrum samples were centrifuged at 3000× g for 15 min at 4 °C to remove the lipaemic interference on analysis. Then, 300 μL of the supernatant was transferred into the cuvettes using pipettes. The samples were diluted to 1:5 for the IgA quantification. The IgA analysis determined the immunoturbidity of the immune insoluble complexes formed in the presence of the reagent. The IgA analysis with the corresponding reagents was performed according to the manufacturer’s protocol.