Polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis of cytosolic retinol- and retinoic acid-binding proteins: application to rat testis and liver.

Distribution and cellular levels of retinol-binding protein and retinoic acid-binding protein, involved in the molecular action of retinoids, were analyzed in rat testis and liver. Both binding proteins of cytosolic extracts were separated by linear-polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis and following electrophoretic separation, could be visualized by complementary identification tests such as autoradiography and marker proteins. The concentration of the binding proteins were evaluated by scanning the polyacrylamide gradient gels and the resulting data were found to be in accordance with those obtained by counting radioactivities. Polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis appears suitable to detect and quantitatively evaluate cytosolic retinol- and retinoic acid-binding proteins.