Fast haptoglobin phenotyping based on microchip electrophoresis

A new and fast method for haptoglobin phenotyping was developed based on microchip electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection. Haptoglobin phenotypes 1-1 and 2-2 were labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate. The analyses were performed on glass microchip which was simply treated with sodium dodecyl sulfate. After the optimization of the separation conditions, Hp 1-1 and Hp 2-2 could be differentiated in 150 s and the detection limits for Hp 1-1 and Hp 2-2 were 0.39 and 0.62 μg/mL, respectively. Finally, the method was applied to human serum samples from healthy people and liver cancer patients. A decrease in Hp concentration for liver cancer patients was confirmed. Featuring high efficiency, speed, simplicity, the method reveals great potentials for the diagnosis of diseases and proteome research.