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. 2014 Mar 25;9(3):e93144. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093144

Figure 1. A representative image of the various biomarkers detected in the sera of IBS patients and healthy volunteers.

Figure 1

Each pair of horizontal blots (bands) represent a different biomarker present in the serum, whereas the intensities of the blots characterize the amount of the respective biomarker. Sera (250 μL) from 60 IBS patients (44 idiopathic IBS and 16 post-infectious IBS) and 40 healthy volunteers were evaluated for the presence of 36 different biomarkers using the Proteome Profiler Human Cytokine Array Panel A Kit (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN). Samples were incubated with a membrane embedded with biotinylated antibodies that are specific for each of the 36 biomarkers analyzed. For detection, the membranes were probed with the Pierce ECL Western Blotting Substrate (Thermo Scientific, Rockford, IL) and exposed to an X-ray film, following incubation with a secondary antibody labelled with streptavidin-horse radish peroxidase. The exposed film was processed using SRX-101A Medical Film Processor (Konica Minolta). Intensities of the blots were determined and expressed as pixel densities using ImageJ (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD).