Biotin-labeled potato chymotrypsin inhibitor-1: a useful probe for the detection and quantitation of chymotrypsin-like serine proteinases on western blots and its application in the detection of a serine proteinase synthesised by articular chondrocytes.

Potato chymotrypsin inhibitor-1 (pCTI-1) was biotinylated by reaction with sulfosuccinimidyl-6-(biotinamido)hexanoate. This derivative was used as a probe on Western blots for the detection and quantitation of chymotrypsin and the detection of a chymotrypsin-like serine proteinase synthesized by ovine chondrocytes in alginate bead culture. Densitometric analysis demonstrated that there was a linear relationship between the amount of chymotrypsin electrophoresed, over the range 0.1 to 10 ng, and the intensity of the band detected on Western blots using biotinylated pCTI-1 as probe, indicating that the technique could be used for the quantification of active proteinases. The biotinylated pCTI-1 detection technique was convenient to use, reproducible, and more sensitive than zymography.