A rapid gel electrophoretic chip for serum cholesterol determination

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Serum cholesterol levels, particularly low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), are critical indicators of cardiovascular health.
• Conventional methods for cholesterol determination can be time-consuming and require specialized laboratory equipment.
• There is a need for rapid, efficient, and accurate methods for simultaneous lipoprotein analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel gel electrophoretic chip for the rapid determination of serum cholesterol.
• To assess the chip's capability for simultaneous quantification of LDL-C and HDL-C.
• To compare the chip-based method with a conventional enzyme-based method for cholesterol analysis.

Main Methods:

• A gel electrophoretic chip was fabricated using a photolithography technique with a 2.5% acrylamide and 1% agarose gel.
• Serum samples were diluted, stained, and loaded onto the chip for a 15-minute separation.
• Lipoprotein band intensities were analyzed using an image analyzer, and concentrations were correlated with a standard enzyme method.

Main Results:

• The electrophoretic chip demonstrated linear detection ranges for LDL-C up to 146 mg/dL and HDL-C up to 53 mg/dL.
• Analysis of real biological samples from nine volunteers showed strong correlations with the conventional enzyme-based method (r² = 0.98 for LDL-C, r² = 0.86 for HDL-C).
• The chip successfully determined lipoprotein concentrations simultaneously.

Conclusions:

• The developed gel electrophoretic chip offers a rapid and accurate method for simultaneous determination of serum LDL-C and HDL-C.
• This proof-of-concept study validates the potential of chip-based electrophoresis for clinical lipoprotein analysis.
• Further studies with larger and diverse populations are warranted to fully establish its clinical utility.