Cholesterol distribution between high-density-lipoprotein subfractions HDL2 and HDL3 determined in serum by discontinuous gradient gel electrophoresis.

We used discontinuous gradients of polyacrylamide gel to determine the high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) subfractions HDL2 and HDL3 of serum lipoproteins. Serum (40 microL) prestained with Sudan Black was electrophoresed in cylindrical tubes over successive layers of 3.5%, 6%, 13%, and 17.5% acrylamide gels in a Tris.glycine buffer (3-4 h, 300 V). Very-low- (VLDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were retained by the 3.5% and 6% gels. HDL2 was concentrated at the interface between the 13% and 17.5% gels, and HDL3 migrated into the 17.5% gel. The distribution between HDL2 and HDL3 was obtained by densitometric scanning. Application of the respective percentages to HDL cholesterol assayed after phosphotung-state-Mg2+ precipitation of VLDL and LDL gave calculated concentrations of HDL2 and HDL3 cholesterol. The calculated values for HDL2 cholesterol were in excellent agreement with those for HDL2 isolated by ultracentrifugation (r = 0.920 for n = 120 sera; differences nonsignificant by Student's paired t-test). Besides being highly discriminating, the method is rapid, easily performed, and economical.