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Highly Sensitive and Quantitative Detection of Proteins and Their Isoforms by Capillary Isoelectric Focusing Method
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Published on: September 19, 2018

Immunoelectrophoresis: a method with many faces

Gyorgy Csako1

  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. lmcsj@aol.com

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|May 16, 2012
PubMed

Immunoelectrophoresis (IEP) was the first practical method that combined electrophoresis and -immunoprecipitation for identifying and characterizing proteins within complex mixtures. Over the years, IEP has been extended to include a variety of techniques and, as a general name, has been applied to virtually any technique that involves electrophoresis and antigen-antibody precipitin reaction for proteins. Because of the diversity in technical details of different IEP versions, the method described here deals only with classic IEP. Although it requires some manual expertise, IEP is versatile, relatively easy to customize, and economical with no need for expensive instrumentation. Further, it can discern identity, partial identity, and nonidentity of the proteins. Any low-viscosity body fluid specimen or, possibly, culture fluid and tissue extract could be tested with IEP if proper antibodies are available. With these attributes, classic IEP remains a valuable tool for clinical diagnostic testing, purity checking of biochemical and pharmaceutical products, and research.

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