Enzyme activity electrophoresis: development and applications

The development of rocket enzyme activity electrophoresis for the detection and quantification of various proteinases, lipases and pectinases is presented. Rocket enzyme activity electrophoresis is more sensitive than the radial diffusion assay and often enables distinction between qualitatively different enzymes present in the same samples, whereas the radial diffusion assay only provides information on the overall enzyme activity. However, calibration and optimization of the enzyme activity electrophoretic assay have to be performed for each new enzyme-substrate system to be analyzed. Some of the common pitfalls in the development of new enzyme activity electrophoretic assays are presented. Enzyme activity electrophoresis can be applied in combination with other electrophoretic assays. Particularly the combination of enzyme activity electrophoresis with various immunoelectrophoretic methods can provide detailed information on the enzymes studies.