A new electrophoretic method is described for rapid screening of abnormalities of
the multimeric structure of von Willebrand factor in von Willebrand’s disease. The
method is based on the transfer of the separated proteins from agarose gels onto nitrocellulose
foils followed by immunoperoxidase staining. It has the advantage of not requiring
radio-iodinated antibodies and reduces the working time for the entire procedure from
5-6 days to 3 days. Electroblotting followed by immunoperoxidase staining differentiates
patients with intact multimeric structure from those without intermediate and/or large
multimers. The more subtle defects of the inner structure of the smallest multimers
found in patients with type II von Willebrand’s disease can also be identified. A
potential disadvantage of electroblotting and immunoperoxidase staining is the lesser
sensitivity of this technique, which results in the detection of a smaller number
of multimers (11-12 bands) than by autoradiography without transfer onto nitrocellulose
(16-17 bands).
Key words
Electroblots - von Willebrand Factor - von Willebrand’s Disease - Immunoperoxidase
