Production of polyacrylamide gradient gel for lipoprotein electrophoretic separation.

BACKGROUND: Small LDL are associated with risk of coronary heart disease. Gradient gel electrophoresis for LDL separation is not a simple method and high-quality non-denaturing gradient gels are lacking. METHODS: In this paper, we describe a method for the preparation of a polyacrylamide gel system that consists of an upper linear gradient gel (1.8-10%) and a lower homogeneous gel (16%) for the determination of LDL size. RESULTS: The linear gradient is highly reproducible. Intra-inter gel coefficients of variation for LDL particle size are lower than 0.6%. CONCLUSION: Effective LDL size measurement from pre-stained serum samples is possible in a stable gel.