Evaluation of the polyethylene glycol precipitation method for the estimation of chicken high density lipoprotein...

A neutral polymer precipitation procedure using polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG) for fractionation of chicken plasma lipoproteins was optimized. Lipoprotein precipitation was dependent on PEG concentration and pH but was independent of PEG exposure time. A PEG concentration of 100 g/l (pH 8) precipitated chicken plasma very low density (VLDL) and low density (LDL) lipoproteins. Disc electrophoresis of supernates demonstrated that high density lipoprotein (HDL) was retained and LDL eliminated by PEG treatment of plasma. Gel filtration chromatography of whole plasma and PEG-treated supernatants on Bio-Gel A-5m demonstrated that HDL-cholesterol content of supernates was unchanged by PEG exposure, while VLDL-cholesterol was selectively removed.