Visualization Technology for Protein after Electrophoresis Using Terahertz Wave

Abstract

Morbidity causes abnormality in concentration of specific protein. Serum protein fraction method has been utilized for understanding the disease state from fractionated concentration ratio of serum protein by electrophoresis. However, in the process of protein visualization, the staining fluid currently used contains harmful substances to human body. Therefore, we focused on Terahertz (THz) wave which is harmless and easily absorbed by biomaterials. We have reported that proteins fractionated by Cellulose Acetate (CA) membrane electrophoresis can be visualized by using THz wave. However, the obtained THz absorption image had low contrast, and the appearing band was also unclear. Therefore, in this report we constructed a coating method for CA membrane using material printer and a drying method after electrophoresis, evaluated the images obtained from the constructed methods. In addition, we examined an image processing method for extracting protein bands after reducing background noise of the image.