Use of quasi-isoelectric buffers as anolyte and catholyte to improve capillary isoelectric focusing performances

The use of quasi-isoelectric anolytes and catholytes has been investigated to improve CIEF performances. Narrow pH cuts of carrier ampholytes (NC) have been compared to more conventional couples of anolytes/catholytes (phosphoric acid/sodium hydroxide and glutamic acid/lysine). First, a CIEF setup that consists in a bare silica capillary and 70:30 water/glycerol separation medium has been used. The experiments have shown that when using NC instead of more classical anolytes and catholytes, an increase in the protein detection time was observed and the resolutions obtained for neutral and acidic proteins were doubled. Moreover, according to the NC fraction used, the resolution was modified. In order to investigate further the mechanisms involved, a second setup using a capillary coated with hydroxypropylcellulose was used. With this setup no difference has been observed when changing anolyte and catholyte nature. A simple methodology has then been developed to evaluate EOF during focusing and mobilization steps of CIEF experiments. It highlighted the crucial role played by EOF when using a bare silica capillary. EOF indeed decreased by 33% during mobilization step when using NC instead of classical anolytes and catholytes.