Voltage-programming-based capillary gel electrophoresis for the fast detection of angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism with high sensitivity.

A voltage-programming-based capillary gel electrophoresis method with a laser-induced fluorescence detector was developed for the fast and highly sensitive detection of DNA molecules related to angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism, which has been reported to influence predisposition to various diseases such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, myocardial infarction, and Alzheimer's disease. Various voltage programs were investigated for fast detection of specific DNA molecules of angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism as a function of migration time and separation efficiency to establish the effect of voltage strength to resolution. Finally, the amplified products of the angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism (190 and 490 bp DNA) were analyzed in 3.2 min without losing resolution under optimum voltage programming conditions, which were at least 75 times faster than conventional slab gel electrophoresis. In addition, the capillary gel electrophoresis method also successfully applied to the analysis of real human blood samples, although no polymorphism genes were detected by slab gel electrophoresis. Consequently, the developed voltage-programming capillary gel electrophoresis method with laser-induced fluorescence detection is an effective, rapid analysis technique for highly sensitive detection of disease-related specific DNA molecules.