PROTOCOL FOR RESOLVING PROTEIN MIXTURES IN CAPILLARY ZONE ELECTROPHORESIS

The separation of protein mixtures by capillary zone electrophoresis can be plagued by wall adsorption of the protein components, causing peak broadening and distortion. A method is presented for overcoming this problem by adding ethylene glycol to the protein sample and by choosing the running buffer and protein sample to be at different pH values and molarities. This protocol appears to work for a wide class of proteins having different molecular weights and pI values. The method has been applied to the analysis of proteins in human serum. Compared to the traditional method of agarose gel electrophoresis, the present method is more rapid and offers better resolution, suggesting its potential as a clinical diagnosis of certain disease states.