Discontinuous polyacrylamide gel-agarose gel immunoelectrophoresis for analysis of plasma lipoproteins.

A modification of crossed immunoelectrophoresis for the analysis of plasma lipoproteins is described and is called polyacrylamide gel-crossed immunoelectrophoresis. The incorporation of albumin in the first-dimensional gel facilitates the transfer of the larger lipoproteins containing apolipoprotein B from the first-dimensional gel to the second dimension. Furthermore, under this condition the quantitation of total apolipoprotein B by polyacrylamide gel-crossed immunoelectrophoresis is in good agreement with the results obtained by rocket immunoelectrophoresis or nephelometry. The correlation between polyacrylamide gel-crossed immunoelectrophoresis and rocket immunoelectrophoresis is good for total apolipoprotein B (p greater than 0.001) and apolipoprotein A-I (p greater than 0.001). Polyacrylamide gel-crossed immunoelectrophoresis also offers interesting aspects to study the plasma lipoprotein classes and subclasses in different cases: normal plasma, current and complex dyslipoproteinemias in the presence or absence of lipoprotein small a. In a case of dyslipoproteinemia of Fredrickson's Type V polyacrylamide gel-crossed immunoelectrophoresis demonstrates the presence of a small-sized Lp (a) major peak in the low density lipoprotein (LDL) zone and of a large-sized Lp (a) minor peak in the very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) zone.