Norethindrone antisera: anomalous cross-reactivities with use of 3H-tetrahydro-reduced norethindrone as radioligand

Anomalous cross-reactions with the dihydro- and tetrahydro-reduced metabolites of norethindrone were observed utilizing antisera raised against norethindrone-3-bovine serum albumin. Whereas displacement of 3H-norethindrone from the antiserum by the metabolites was generally minimal, where one of the metabolites was used as radiotracer, displacement by the metabolites was equal to or greater than that achieved by norethindrone. This unexpected finding was examined for its usefulness in developing a radioimmunoassay system for norethindrone metabolites in plasma. The sensitivity of the resulting standard curve was such as to permit quantitation of pg amounts of the reduced metabolites