Two-dimensional electrophoresis of proteins in human serum: improved resolution by use of narrow pH gradients and prolonged electrophoresis.

The limited resolution of serum proteins achieved with a simplified technique of two-dimensional electrophoresis (Clin. Chim. Acta 103: 51-59, 1980) has been improved by using different ampholyte (Ampholine) mixtures in the first dimension, to obtain relatively shallow pH gradients, and prolonged electrophoresis time in the second dimension. The technique has been further simplified, without negative effect, by decreasing the concentration of non-ionic detergent (first dimension), omitting both sodium dodecyl sulfate equilibration and the use of a stacking gel (second dimension), and by using an improved silver-staining procedure. Reverse-polarity isoelectric focusing and non-equilibrium pH-gradient electrophoresis have been successfully used to resolve the basic polypeptides in serum after deleting sodium dodecyl sulfate from the sample preparation. These combined techniques reveal over 1100 polypeptides in human serum. After immunodeletion of albumin, additional serum polypeptides are seen. Immunodeletion of serum proteins from plasma reveals polypeptides that are relatively specific to plasma.