Paper Electrophoresis of Proteins and Protein-Bound Substances in Clinical Investigations

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the role of paper electrophoresis of proteins in investigating the chemical nature of physiological and pathological conditions; and the individual patient. The value of paper electrophoresis in determining the diagnosis and prognosis, in the assessment of progress, and in the control of therapy has been evaluated in the chapter. Paper electrophoresis of proteins is a rapidly developing technique, and conclusions drawn at present are scarcely more than those of a preliminary report. It has been very widely used in elucidating the changes in protein metabolism, which occur in different conditions, amplifying and extending the information already obtained by the more laborious technique of boundary electrophoresis. The use of paper electrophoresis as a diagnostic procedure is thus less assured than its use in other fields, and it would appear that techniques that give better resolution of individual protein components, such as electrophoresis in starch gel or electrophoresis in agar combined with immunological reactions (G18), could profitably be developed further as aids to diagnosis.