Multiplex immunoassays in endometriosis: An array of possibilities

Abstract

Multiplex immunoassays range from small-scaled multiplex sandwich ELISAs in a planar or bead-based format to the more expanded antibody arrays employing direct sample labeling. The plethora of data generated from these arrays could be of great interest to understand a complex disorder such as endometriosis. Multiplex immunoassay analysis may provide information on disease pathology and may lead to improved, timely diagnosis. Until now, the use of multiplex immunoassays has been limited in endometriosis. With the constant development of multiplex technologies, future studies should focus on implementing these techniques, and combining them with multivariate statistical analysis. In this review, we provide an overview of multiplex immunoassay methods used in endometriosis studies and the data sets acquired by these methodologies. These data and future studies might provide novel insights for biomarker discovery and investigation of the pathogenesis in endometriosis.