Filter paper electrophoresis : some clinical applications

Abstract

The term "electrophoresis' is applied to the physico-chemical process of migration of colloid 'particles in, an electric field. Electrophoresis has made possible the separation of the various protein and lipoid components of serum and of other biological fluids. The method of boundary electrophoresis introduced by Tizelius in 1935, and subsequently modified (Tizelius, 1956) remains a complex laboratory procedure suitable only for research purposes. With the introduction of the simplified technique of filter paper electrophoresis by Wieland and Fischer in 1948 (Franglen, 1953), electrophoresis found greater practical application. The latter technique has greatly contributed to the isolation and identification of the various forms of abnormal haemoglobin (Motulsky, Paul and Durnim, 1954; Lehmann, 1957).