The Lab Medicine Department (Biochemistry and Haematology) of Apollo Hospitals Dhaka has introduced ultramodern high resolution Capillary Electrophoresis method for medical analysis, which will replace the manual Agar Gel Electrophoresis.

What is Electrophoresis?

Electrophoresis is a method for separating biological molecules by their size and electrical charge, and is applied in medical diagnostics to determine the constituent molecules within biological samples. Electrophoresis involves placing a sample in an electrical field matrix and allowing molecules to migrate towards the electrical poles based on their charges. The most highly charged molecules will move the furthest, and the smaller molecules will move further than the larger ones. Thus, inside the electrical field, molecules that are all of the same size and charge will all move the same distance, whereas other molecules of different sizes will move a different distance. This produces characteristic bands or stripes and each band will represent a specific molecule. The bands are often stained using chemical dyes to make them easier to analyze.

Capillary Electrophoresis

Capillary Electrophoresis is a form of electrophoresis which has become a very important tool in the diagnosis and profiling of many diseases because of its following advantages over traditional electrophoresis methods:

• Separates wide range of biological molecules such as inorganic ions, organic acids, amino acids, peptides, drugs, vitamins, steroids, hormones, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids
• Operates at higher voltage without burning the samples
• Offers a relatively easy operating process; the results and entire process is automated
• Highly efficient by keeping sample consumption remarkably low
• Provides high resolution visualization through coloured printouts showing precise representation of each band
• Separates and detects individual Hb and proteins bands  (8-10 protein fractions, including small M-proteins)

Note: In Capillary Electrophoresis, the specimen protocol and turn around time would remain the same as that in Agar Gel Electrophoresis.