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Page No. : 5-10

ABSTRACT

Hydatid cyst fluid (HCF) is largely employed for the development of a battery of antigens that are effectively utilized in the immunodiagnosis of cystic echinococcosis (CE). Crude HCF antigen, antigen B, antigen 5 are a few widely employed antigenic extracts from HCF in immunological assays. In this study, the protein content of the HCF has been estimated by conventional Bradford method and nanodrop spectrophotometer. Comparatively, similar results were observed in both the methods with the nanodrop method being quicker and recorded higher concentration of the protein. Further, Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Urea-PAGE were employed for protein profiling and a comparison was drawn in between for verifying their efficiency. SDS-PAGE revealed a greater range of proteins compared to Urea-PAGE but bands were less sharp whereas later was effective in resolving the proteins of lower molecular weight and the bands were comparatively sharper. Henceforth, the protein estimation methods that were employed in this study were similar with nanodrop method edging front and in the protein profiling methods, urea-PAGE revealed sharper protein bands on visualization but was limited to the lower molecular weight proteins with SDS-PAGE being a moderate method for estimating the protein profile of hydatid cyst fluid.

Keywords: Bradford method, hydatid cyst fluid, nanodrop, SDS-PAGE, Urea-PAGE