A technique is described for electrophoresis of saliva in polyacrylamide slabs and recognition of amylase isozymes. After electrophoresis, the gel slab is sliced in halves longitudinally. One-half of the gel is stained with starch and iodine, and the other half is stained with amido black. The two gel halves permit correlation of a region of amylolytic activity on one gel with a protein band on the other. Resolution with this technique is comparable with that obtained by polyacrylamide column (disc) electrophoresis. However, this technique enables the mobilities of bands in different specimens to be compared accurately, and amylase variants with different electrophoretic mobilities to be identified. Several variants have already been identified. With minor modifications the technique has been used successfully to identify amylase isozymes in the other body fluids and tissue homogenates. © 1969.
