What is the primary use of agarose gel electrophoresis in a clinical setting?

Agarose gel electrophoresis is primarily used for the separation of DNA fragments, which is crucial in various molecular biology applications, including genetic testing, cloning, and forensic analysis. In the clinical setting, it allows for the visualization and analysis of DNA size and integrity, which is vital for applications such as PCR product verification and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis.

While other methods are employed for the separation of hemoglobin variants, plasma proteins, and lipoproteins, they typically utilize different techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or protein electrophoresis, rather than agarose gel electrophoresis. Agarose gel’s properties are optimized for nucleic acid separation rather than protein separation. Thus, the ability to accurately separate DNA fragments makes agarose gel electrophoresis a fundamental technique in clinical laboratories dealing with genetic analysis.