298 DAVID K. BKIGGS 



5. Some Recent Accomplishments 



The perfecting of the U-tube method for electrophoresis measure- 

 ment has enormously increased the usefulness of this electrokinetic 

 technique in the study of materials of biological origin. Since this 

 method constitutes a means for analyzing proteins and other colloid 

 electrolytes for electrophoretic homogeneity of components as well as 

 for the number and relative amounts of such components present in 

 mixtures, it can be used to characterize naturally occurring prepara- 

 tions, such as the proteins of the blood, in which variations from nor- 

 mal have proved of diagnostic value in some cases (2). Proteins 

 previously considered as single entities, such as casein, have been 

 shown to be mixtures (40). Even crystalline egg albumin has been 

 shown to consist of two electrophoretically slightly different compo- 

 nents (4i)- The interaction of proteins and detergents can be studied 

 by this method (4^). Some phases of the denaturation reactions of 

 proteins are being elucidated by this means (45). The usefulness of 

 this method in helping to better characterize biocolloids becomes in- 

 creasingly evident with each new system on which it is employed. 

 The moving-boundary method has been adapted for use as a prepara- 

 tive procedure for the separation of electrophoretically distinct com- 

 ponents from complex mixtures of natural occurrence (31-85). 

 Successful purification of cytochrome c and the yellow enzyme are 

 examples of the application of this method. 



A complete analytical and preparative apparatus of the moving-boundary 

 type employing the refractive index methods for boundary detection and 

 analysis is obtainable from Klett Manufacturing Company, New York City. 

 At the present time (1949), several more compact and simplified analytical 

 instruments, designed primarily for clinical laboratories, are becoming avail- 

 able from various instrument manufacturers. 



References 



General References 



1. Abramson, H. A., Electrokinetic Phenomena. Chemical Catalog Co., 



New York, 1934. 



2. Abramson, H. A., L. 8. Moyer, and M. H. Gorin, Electrophoresis of Pro- 



teins. Reinhold, New York, 1942. 



3. Symposium, "Tlie Electrical l)c)ul)le Layer," Trans. Faraday Soc, 36, 1 



"(1940). 

 J^a. Symposium "Electrophoresis," Ann. \. Y. Acad. Sci.. 39, 105 (1939). 



M 



