Association for Biology Laboratory Education

Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE) of Blood Proteins
 



Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 1994, Volume 15

Abstract

In this laboratory exercise, students utilize differential precipitation and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in combination with centrifugation and detergent extraction to fractionate the complex mixtures of proteins found in mammalian red blood cells and mammalian blood plasma and to characterize some of the component proteins. Gels are stained with Coomassie blue and migration distances for the unknown proteins are compared with those of known protein standards. Students then determine the sizes of the unknown proteins, compare their relative abundance, speculate about the identities of the components of the various fractions, and evaluate the efficiency of the fractionation techniques.

Keywords:  protein, polyacrylamide, blood, electrophoresis

University of Toronto (1993)