Evaluation of a cellulose-acetate electrophoresis system for serum protein fractionation.

A rapid system for the quantitative fractionation of serum proteins by electrophoresis on cellulose-acetate membranes was evaluated and found to be quite precise. The reproducibility (coefficient of variation) of the routine fractionation of a control serum carried out 40 times during a 15-week period was 2.4% for albumin and 14.2, 6.0, 6.1, and 5.2%, respectively, for the ar-, a2-, /3-, and -y-globulin fractions. Normal values are given for serum protein fractions (specimens from nonprofessional blood donors) obtained by cellulose acetate electrophoresis.