ABSTRACT
The aim of the study was to establish the clinical method for the detection of the human serum antibodies reacting to the membranous labyrinth protein using the Western immunoblotting labeled with boition streptavidin. Different control experiments were conducted, which included the human serum empty control, the biotin labeled antibody empty control, the avidin blocking control, the serum control of patient with autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss and that of patient with autoimmune disease. By comparing the different expressions in these experiments, it was suggested that the reacting band at 65kD, and the dark reacting bands at 82kD or within 56~48kD or 33~30kD should be identified as positive reaction of the human serum antibodies to the membranous labyrinth protein. The positive rates of 65kD were 30.4%~82.6% with the confidence intervals of 95%, and 23.8%~87.0% with the confidence intervals of 99%. The confidence intervals were 18%~72% and 13.4%~77.6% respectively, for 95% and 99% positive rates of the latter 3 bands combined. The reacting bands at 134kD and 70kD indicated affinity to avidin and streptavidin, which did not relate to positive reaction.