Clinical Chemistry / LOW-DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN SIZE BY ELECTROPHORESIS Comparison of Low-Density Lipoprotein Size by Polyacrylamide Tube Gel Electrophoresis and Polyacrylamide Gradient Gel Electrophoresis

We evaluated a low-density lipoprotein (LDL) subfraction separation method using polyacrylamide tube gel electrophoresis (PTGE) and compared it with the reference method, polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis (PGGE-REF). Excellent intra-assay and interassay coefficients of variation were obtained (<4%) for PTGE. For 102 subjects, LDL subclasses correlated most significantly with triglyceride (TG) level, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio, and non-HDL cholesterol level (P <.05). The distribution of large LDL (76%) was predominant for subjects with low TG levels (<150 mg/dL [1.69 mmol/L]), while distribution of small LDL (79%) was predominant for subjects with high TG levels (>200 mg/dL [2.26 mmol/L]). Excellen