A Study of Fibrin Zymography Method for the Assay of Plasminogen Activators

Abstract

Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) is the most important and widely used technology which is mainly used to analyze the protein molecular weight. Fibrin zymography based on the SDS-PAGE is the best method for qualitative analysis of unknown plasminogen activators (PAs), especially for the analysis of molecular weight. In electrophoresis technique, molecular weight marker is the most important factor. However, it is difficult to detect protein molecular weight markers in fibrin zymography. In this study, some important factors, such as concentrations of fibrinogen and plasminogen, are discussed. Our results provide an efficient and convenient method which can clearly exhibit the dark blue bands of protein molecular weight (MW) markers and the transparent bands of PAs against the light blue background on one gel at the same time, and show high sensitivity.