Cellulose acetate electrophoresis was used for differential diagnosis of radicular cysts and granulomas. Sixteen periapical lesions were excised from sixteen teeth with radiographic evidence of periapical pathosis, and two normal periodontal tissues were surgically removed from two wisdom teeth. The tissue samples were separated into two parts. Half was prepared for cellulose acetate electrophoresis, and the electrophoretic patterns were scanned with Helena densitometer. The other half was examined histologically, and the histologic diagnoses were then compared with the electrophoretic patterns and with the x-ray findings. The results were the following: 1. The histopathologic results showed the presence of 13 granulomas (81.8%) and 3 cysts (18.3%). 2. An albumin pattern, alpha-globulin pattern, beta-globulin pattern, fibrinogen pattern and gamma-globulin pattern were found in all eighteen cases. 3. All eighteen cases were divided into normal periodontal tissue group, dental granuloma group, and radicular cyst group by the histopathologic diagnosis. The electrophoretic pattern of dental granuloma group and that of normal periodontal tissue group resembled each other. The two groups showed the highest percentage in beta-globulin fraction, and the beta-globulin of dental granuloma group(47.17%) was higher than that of normal periodontal tissue group (40.54%) by 6.63%. On the contrary, beta-globulin fraction of radicular cyst group (28.00%) was much lower than those of the granuloma group (47.17%) and normal periodontal tissue group (40.54%), and alpha-globulin of radicular cyst group (34.16%) was much higher than those of the granuloma group (20.04%) and normal group (19.58%). 4. Five cases (31.3%) of the sixteen periodontal lesions showed different results between histopathologic diagnoses and radiographic findings.