Analysis of normal human aqueous humour proteins by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis

High resolution two‐dimensional electrophoresis combined with a sensitive silver stain has been used to study the proteins of normal human aqueous humour. The protein patterns of small, unconcentrated, individual samples and of pooled and concentrated aqueous humour samples were compared with plasma or serum from the same individual or with a normal serum. The protein maps of aqueous humour and serum showed great similarity. More than 30 groups of spots were visualized in aqueous humour after silver staining and 18 of them have been tentatively identified. Three polypeptide groups were observed which were not found in plasma or serum. The different clusters, which appeared in the region of high (> 90 000), medium (50 000–45 000) and low (25 000–15 000) molecular weight polypeptides, remain unidentified. The most abundant cluster represents a molecular weight of approximately 48 000.