Sialic acid is a generic term for the N- or O-substituted derivatives of neuraminic acid, a monosaccharide with a nine-carbon backbone. It is also the name for the most common member of this group, N-acetylneuraminic acid. Sialic acids are found widely distributed in animal tissues and to a lesser extent in other species ranging from plants and fungi to yeasts and bacteria, mostly in glycoproteins and gangliosides. It has been shown recently that sialic acid level may be associated with developmental and pathological stages. Sialic Acid Assay Kit provides a simple and convenient means of measuring free Sialic Acid in a variety of biological samples. The kit utilizes an enzyme coupled reaction in which free sialic acid is oxidized resulting in development of the Oxi-Red probe to give fluorescence (Ex/Em=535/587 nm) and absorbance (O.D.=570 nm). The kit measures sialic acid in the linear range of 0.1 to 10 nmol with a detection sensitivity ~1 μM concentration.
