Abstract: An assay for Type II collagen fragments in serum, plasma, or synovial fluid obtains a quantitative measure of the concentration of all protein fragments in a serum, plasma, or synovial fluid sample that are reactive with an antibody, or immunoreactive antibody fragment, having specific reactivity with a C-terminal epitope present in the amino acid sequence GPPGRDGAAG and lacking specific reactivity with an amino acid sequence comprising the amino acid sequence GPPGRDGAAGV, which may be Mab NB44-3C1 as produced by the cell line deposited in HPA Culture Collection Logistics Office with Accession Number 10091402.

Abstract: A method of diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) an immunoassay to measure aggrecan fragments in said sample, and association of an elevation above a normal level with the presence of CVD, is conducted by contacting aggrecan fragments in said sample with an first antibody reactive with an N-terminal first epitope formed by cleavage of aggrecan by a proteinase and with a second antibody reactive with a second aggrecan epitope which is present in aggrecan at a location in the C-terminal direction from the location of said N-terminal epitope, and measuring the extent of simultaneous binding of both antibodies.