Genetic studies of human apolipoproteins. XV. An overview of IEF immunoblotting methods to screen apolipoprotein polymorphisms.

Genetically determined structural variation in the gene products of various apolipoproteins plays a significant role in modulating lipid levels in the population at large. However, due to tedious and cumbersome experimental problems involved, the detailed characterization of this genetic variation has been limited. The recent development of simple and sensitive isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting methods has circumvented these technically associated problems to a large extent, and this has allowed us to expand the genetic data on various apolipoproteins to previously uncharacterized populations. We have reviewed here these isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting methods. A comprehensive listing of allele frequencies has also been given for the polymorphic apolipoproteins.