Recent innovations in protein separation on microchips by electrophoretic methods

Abstract

Microchips for analytical purposes have attracted great attention over the last 20 years. In the present review, we focus on the most recent development of microchips for electrophoretic separation of proteins. This review starts with a short recalling about the microchips covering the basic microchip layout for CE and the commercial chips and microchip platforms. A short paragraph is dedicated to the surface treatment of microchips, which is of paramount importance in protein analysis. One section is dedicated to on-line sample pretreatment in microchips and summarizes different strategies to pre-concentrate or to purify proteins from complex matrixes. Most of the common modes used for CE of proteins have already been adapted to the chip format, while multidimensional approaches are still in progress. The different routes to achieve detection in microchip are also presented with a special attention to derivatization or labeling of proteins. Finally, several recent applications are mentioned. They highlight the great potential of electrophoretic separations of proteins in numerous fields such as biological, pharmaceutical or agricultural and food analysis. A bibliography with 151 references is provided covering papers published from 2000 to the early 2007.

PEGylated lysozymes with anti-septic effects in human endothelial cells and in mice

“…These analytical techniques are useful tools for checking identity and purity of PEGylated proteins. MCGE is an electrophoresis technique based on lab-on-a-chip technology with several advantages over conventional techniques because it is highly automated, offers rapid sample analysis, and requires minimal sample consumption, in addition to being highly precise and sensitive with laser-induced fluorescence [26]. The separation principle of MCGE is similar to that of SDS-PAGE where proteins are separated based on relative molecular size in the presence of SDS.…”

Portable capillary-based (non-chip) capillary electrophoresis

“…Chip-based CE (chip-CE) can be utilized in proteomic analysis [41], DNA separation, including sequencing [42][43][44], fragment sizing and genotyping [45], analysis of low-molecular-weight compounds (e.g., explosive residues and warfare agents) [46], food analysis [47], and analysis of pharmaceuticals, drugs and various analytes in body fluids [48]. Despite the trend towards increasing utilization of microfluidic chips in analytical chemistry, confirmed by the steadily growing number of scientific publications focusing on microfluidic chips (Fig.…”

“…Unlike chip-CE, which has been reviewed numerous times in recent years [40,41,[53][54][55], no review has focused specifically on P-CE instruments using a capillary as the CE-separation format. This appraisal of current status and future development options in P-CE is structured into three sections.…”

Modeling and high performance simulation of electrophoretic techniques in microfluidic chips

“…These techniques, which are widely used in chemical and biochemical analysis, have been miniaturized in the last 20 years and now represent one of the most important applications of lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology (Manz et al 1990;Landers 2007;Tian and Finehout 2008). Electrophoretic separations carried out by LOC technology comprise a group of different techniques such as capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), isoelectric focusing (IEF), isotachophoresis (ITP), moving boundary electrophoresis (MBE), and free flow electrophoresis (FFE) (Reyes et al 2002;Peng et al 2008;Wu et al 2008). CZE, MBE, and ITP are based on the displacement of electrophoretic species along the microchannel.…”