Mercury Assay Kit

Product details

Mercury Assay Kit (ab233467) offers a fluorescence-based assay for measuring mercury ion (Hg²⁺) with high selectivity. Mercury sensor 590 itself is nearly non-fluorescent, but generates more than 500-fold fluorescence enhancement upon binding Hg²⁺ ion. The fluorescence signal can be measured with a fluorescence microplate reader at Ex/Em= 540/590 nm. With this kit, we were able to detect as low as 8 μM Hg²⁺ in a 100 μL reaction volume.

Mercury ion is considered to be one of the most hazardous pollutants and highly dangerous materials. The high toxicity of Hg²⁺ is caused by its high affinity to the thiol groups in biological ligands such as proteins, DNA, and enzymes. When Hg²⁺ is absorbed in the human body from the environment, it induces aberrations in microtubules, ion channels, and mitochondria presumably and significant damage to the kidneys, heart, brain, stomach, intestines, central nervous system and immune systems. In addition, mercury accumulates through food chains or atmosphere in the ecological system, and has a relatively long atmospheric residence time because of its non-biodegradation. Therefore, highly selective and sensitive detection of mercury is of toxicological and environmental importance.