The TECO Mucus Collection Set for fish mucus is a validated tool for repeatable non-destructive sampling of epidermal mucosa for biomarker assays such as vitellogenin and cortisol, and designed as an accessory kit to be used exclusively with the TECO® range of Vitellogenin and Cortisol ELISA kits:

Vitellogenin is one of the core endpoints in screening and testing for endocrine disrupting chemicals standardized in the OECD Guidelines for the testing of chemicals for estrogenic activity. Originally believed to be produced only in the liver, several cell types have recently been shown to produce vitellogenin after estrogen stimulation, including those of the epidermal mucosa of fish.

Given the destructive nature of traditional sampling, collecting successive samples from fish has been a widespread problem. Blood is difficult to collect, in particular where very small fish are concerned, or in approaches where the animals must survive sampling. This is particularly important in field monitoring in order to avoid impact on the population under investigation. Even though the vitellogenin concentration in the skin mucus is an order of magnitude lower than in blood serum or in body homogenates (containing liver tissue), the skin mucosa is very well suited as a matrix to determine exogenous vitellogenin induction caused by environmental chemicals with affinity to the estrogen receptors.

Mucus sampling with the aid of swabs constitutes an alternative to traditional procedures, avoiding animal injury by using a highly sensitive ELISA in combination with a high quality extraction buffer and swab sampling, the determination of mucosa-derived VTG has the following advantages:

• Non-destructive, non-invasive sampling
• Defined matrix without lymphatic fluid contamination
• Allows the use of smaller fish for testing and monitoring purposes
• Repeated sampling allows for individual recording of the induction kinetic

The sampling technique leads to highly comparable results when testing samples from the left and the right side from the same individual in inter-laboratory trials.
The extraction buffer is protein free and therefore an additional protein determination in the extracted sample is always possible.