Electrophoretic analysis of proteins in bile

An overview on the applications and the contributions of electrophoretic techniques to the analysis of biliary proteins is presented. The electrophoretic techniques include free-, paper-, agar-, acetate cellulose film- and starch gel-electrophoresis, immunoelectrophoresis, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and high resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. These techniques were applied in the separation and characterization of hepatic bile proteins, gallbladder bile proteins, gallstone proteins, and finally vesicular and micellar proteins. The chief contribution of electrophoresis to research in the field of cholesterol crystal and gallstone formation has been in the characterization of pro- and anti-nucleating proteins. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.