Cayman’s Protease Activity Assay Kit provides a convenient method for determining the activity of proteases in samples.; Proteolytic digestion of the FITC-casein substrate can be monitored by changes in either fluorescence polarization (FP) or total fluorescence.; Fluorescence is the ability of a molecule to absorb the energy of an incoming (excitation) photon and then re-emit this energy as a new, slightly less energetic (emission) photon.; If the excitation light is polarized, this rotation will result in randomization of the plane of the emitted light.; In this assay, the total FP decreases as the FITC-casein is digested into smaller, quicker rotating fluorescein-labeled fragments.; This fluorescence increases as the FITC-casein substrate is digested into smaller fluorescein-labeled fragments.; Both assay formats use an excitation wavelength of 480-495 nm and an emission wavelength of 515-525 nm.