Procept® Product Information

Inside the Procept Process

Here’s how it works: The Procept® Rapid Dioxin Assay detects dioxin and dioxin-like compounds present in a test sample. The dioxin compounds activate the Ah Receptor (AhR) to a form that binds DNA. The activated complex is trapped onto a micro-well and the receptor-bound DNA is amplified by an instrument known as PCR (polymerase chain reaction).	Watch Animation

The PCR performs repeated temperature gradient cycles in which the DNA in the sample well is replicated. The amount of DNA in the sample is monitored by means of a fluorescent dye. The cycle number in which the fluorescence increases above background is referred to as the threshold cycle, or Ct. This value is inversely related to the amount of DNA in the well, and correspondingly the amount of dioxin in the original sample. A standard curve is constructed by plotting dioxin concentration vs. Ct. Using this curve, the concentration of dioxin of the sample can be predicted from the Ct of the sample.

Because the Procept Rapid Dioxin Assay, like reporter gene screening techniques, is based on the Ah Receptor interaction with dioxin, the test approximates a direct measurement of toxicity in the sample. The data in the table to the right demonstrate the correlation for selected dioxin and furan congeners between WHO-2005 toxicity factors and the relative response to the Procept Assay.

	The Procept Rapid Dioxin Assay soil sample preparation method is similar but much simpler than the traditional GC-MS sample preparation. The Procept method uses a smaller, multilayered silica column followed by a florisil column. There is no need for the carbon column used in the GC-MS sample prep.