Prolactin has been reported to be a remarkable index of stress response, both acute and\nchronic, in several species. The use of biological matrixes other than blood is receiving increasing\ninterest in the study of hormones, due to the lower invasiveness in collection. This research aimed\nto investigate the possibility of using a commercial ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay)\nkit for measuring canine prolactin in blood for the quantification of canine prolactin in saliva.\nStudy 1 consisted of a validation protocol, using saliva samples collected from lactating and\nnon-lactating dogs. Study 2 was conducted to investigate a possible correlation between prolactin\nconcentration in saliva and plasma in sheltered dogs by using the same kit. Prolactin values were\nreliably read only when they came from blood samples, not from saliva, but tended to be low in\nmost of the cases. Study 1 showed that saliva had a matrix effect. In study 2, saliva prolactin levels\nwere low and in 42.9% of cases, not readable................................
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