The use of electroimmunoassay for determining specific proteins as a supplement to agarose gel electrophoresis.

Electrophoretic analysis is the standard method of screening for abnormalities of the plasma proteins. To be acceptable, supportive media should have negligible adsorption and little interaction with protein, such as agarose and cellulose acetate. For high quality patterns the plasma proteins should separate over more than 5 cm within one hour, without the temperature of the supporting medium rising above 300. The buffer should be slightly alkaline, and the addition of calcium (2 mmol/l) improves the resolution of the three major proteins in the fl-zone by slowing the f-lipoproteins and the third factor of complement (C3), each to a different extent, whereas the mobility of transferrin is unaffected. There are two principal methods of interpreting the patterns obtained. One is to relate each major