GENETIC-STUDIES OF HUMAN APOLIPOPROTEINS .15. AN OVERVIEW OF IEF IMMUNOBLOTTING METHODS TO SCREEN APOLIPOPROTEIN POLYMORPHISMS

Gentically determined structural variation in the gene products of various apoliproteins plays a signficant role in modulating lipid levels in the population at large. However, due to tedious and cumbersome experimental problems involved, the detailed characterization of this genetic variation has been limited. The recent development of simple and sensitive isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting methods has circumvented these technically associated problems to a large extent, and this has allowed us to expand the genetic data on various apolipoproteins to previously uncharacterized populations. We have reviewed here these isolelectric focusing and immunoblotting methods. A comprehensive listing of allele frequencies has also been given for the poly-morphic apolipoproteins.