The proposed approach demonstrated in this study provides an immunosensing system based on reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIfS) in combination with an antibody immobilization method using histidine-tagged recombinant protein A. Carboxymethyldextran (CMD) was immobilized on a 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-treated a silicon nitride-coated silicon wafer, followed by chelating histidine-tagged recombinant protein A with copper (II) ions. The CMD-layer was found to be advantageous in terms of not only immobilization of histidine-tagged recombinant protein A-mediated an antibody against myoglobin (anti-Myo) but also prevention of non-specific binding of myoglobin. Myoglobin was repeatedly detected, and the apparent detection limit was 0.1 mu g mL(-1). The proposed RIfS-based protein sensing system, in conjunction with the easy preparation of silicon-based inexpensive immunosensing chips, is expected to be applicable for label-free optical detection for other proteins in various fields. (C) 2014, The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. All rights reserved.