Detection and characterization of epidermal proteinases by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

1.1. Electrophoresis of cornified cell extracts of 2-day-old rats, using SDS polyacrylamide gels copolymerized with α-casein or gelatin with or without plasminogen, was performed.2.2. Both Tris-HCl buffer soluble protein and KSCN solubilized protein contained a number of hydrolases for α-casein and/or gelatin, but PA (mol. wts 57 and 50K) was found only in the KSCN extract.3.3. The pH dependency, substrate specificity and mol. wt of plasminogen-independent proteinases were comparatively determined and DFP inhibition tested.4.4. This simple technique helped to identify the presence of several proteinases and to characterize them in partially purified epidermal extracts.