Method of selectively assaying adiponectin multimers

A method for selectively assaying a target adiponectin multimer in a biological sample, comprising a step of distinguishing target adiponectin multimer from the other adiponectin multimers by using a protease and an antibody to assay immunologically, wherein the adiponectin multimer is derived from human blood, and is of the following four types of adiponectin, and one or two of the four types of adiponectin are selected from the total adiponectin and immunoassayed, through use of a protease and an antibody; (1) ULMW-Ad: exhibits the highest mobility among the four main stained bands detected when adiponectin which has been purified from human serum or human plasma is electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gel (2 to 15%) under non-denaturing conditions, and has a molecular weight around 100 kDa as measured through SDS-PAGE after intramolecular crosslinking; (2) LMW-Ad: exhibits the second highest mobility, next to ULMW-Ad, among the four main stained bands detected when adiponectin which has been purified from human serum or human plasma is electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gel (2 to 15%) under non-denaturing conditions, has a molecular weight around 150 kDa as measured through SDS-PAGE after intramolecular crosslinking, and binds to albumin via a disulfide bond; (3) MMW-Ad: exhibits the third highest mobility, next to LMW-Ad, among the four main stained bands detected when adiponectin which has been purified from human serum or human plasma is electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gel (2 to 15%) under non-denaturing conditions, and has a molecular weight around 250 kDa as measured through SDS-PAGE after intramolecular crosslinking; and (4) HMW-Ad: exhibits the lowest mobility among the four main stained bands detected when adiponectin which has been purified from human serum or human plasma is electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gel (2 to 15%) under non-denaturing conditions, and has a molecular weight of 300 kDa or higher as measured through SDS-PAGE after intramolecular crosslinking.