Paper electrophoresis as a quantitative method: the staining of serum lipoproteins.

Electrophoresis of serum on filter paper followed by staining 3 of the lipoprotein fractions with lipid dyes is technically the simplest method for the separation and estimation of serum lipoproteins. A number of procedures for the staining of separated lipoproteins on paper with various lipid dyes have appeared (1-8), but the only comprehensive consideration of the quantitative aspects of dye binding by serum lipids on paper is the very careful study reported by Swahn (9), which was primarily concerned with the quantitative aspects of the staining of whole serum on paper with a preparation of the lipid dye Sudan black. A critical study of some of the characteristics of the staining of electrophoretically separated lipoproteins on paper and a detailed procedure for a semi-quantitative empirical determination of serum lipoprotein distribution with the lipid dye oil red 0 are reported here.