Interactions of hemoglobin in live red blood cells measured by the electrophoresis release test.

Electrophoresis release test (ERT) is the starch-agarose mixed gel electrophoresis of live red blood cells (RBCs). Mixed gel electrophoresis used to be one of the classic methods to isolate proteins, and in our laboratory, this technique is usually performed to isolate hemoglobins. Recently, combined with sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), ERT has been used to study the interactions between hemoglobin and other proteins in live RBCs.