Genetic variants of alpha 1-antitrypsin and hemoglobin typed by isoelectric focusing in preselected narrow pH gradients with PhastSystem.

In this method for automatically running and staining isoelectric focusing (IEF) gels, pre-made dehydrated polyacrylamide gels were rehydrated before assays run with the PhastSystem (Pharmacia LKB Biotechnology). The typing of genetic variants of hemoglobin and alpha 1-antitrypsin in narrow pH gradients (pH 6.7-7.7 and 4.2-4.9, respectively) was simple, convenient, and reproducible. The clinically important variants of alpha 1-antitrypsin (ZZ and SZ) were identified from serum or dried blood on filter paper. The fast screening of abnormal hemoglobin samples (HbS) for cases in clinical medicine was easily performed. The total analysis time for the phenotyping with conventional protein staining was approximately 60 min.