3D打印便携式凝胶电泳装置用于蛋白质的快速检测

随着现场分析对于快速、便携和经济型检测的需求，分析仪器的便携化和微型化备受关注。3D打印技术的不断发展，将会极大推动小型化、便携式实验设备的开发和研制。分析仪器的微型化有助于促进资源不足地区在医疗现场、食品安全和环境污染等方面的现场监测。目前，用于蛋白质分离的凝胶电泳装置多为实验室用小型化分析仪器，可用于现场快速分离蛋白质的小型化仪器尚未见报道。该研究设计加工了一款便携式凝胶电泳装置，用于蛋白质的快速分离检测。首先，通过3D打印加工的凝胶电泳装置可在实验室内方便、快捷、低成本的复制。其次，通过对预染蛋白质相对分子质量标准的分离测试，对该系统结构进行优化。优化后该凝胶电泳装置电泳槽的尺寸仅为15 mm×20 mm×17 mm，采用3D打印技术可在5 h内加工完成，耗费打印材料10 mL。正负极所用电泳缓冲液共需4 mL，所使用的25 V锂电池可实现100 h左右的工作时间。装置优化后可实现蛋白质的快速高效分离。随后，在5种常用蛋白质相对分子质量标准的分离中，该装置与商业化平板凝胶电泳分离效果相当，同时具备更快的分离速度。该研究在便携式凝胶电泳装置的开发及其在蛋白质快速分离方面取得了初步成果，但在分离完成后立即对蛋白质进行定量分析以及更多实际样品的应用方面还需要进一步研究。

3D printed portable gel electrophoresis device for rapid detection of proteins

The growing demand for rapid, portable, and economical detection methods for environmental analysis has resulted in increasing demands on the portability and miniaturization of analytical instruments. The miniaturization of scientific instruments facilitates analysis in the field of medicine, food, and environment, especially for the under-resourced areas. The gel electrophoresis devices currently available for protein separation are primarily used in laboratories. Miniaturized instruments that can be used for on-site and rapid separation of protein have not yet been reported. In this study, a portable gel electrophoresis device for rapid separation and detection of proteins was developed and manufactured by 3D printing in a laboratory, which was economical, convenient, and quick. First, four kinds of portable gel electrophoresis devices that included three kinds of columnar gel and one slab gel electrophoresis device were designed with computer-aided design software SolidWorks 2017 (Dassault Systemes SE, France); the components including gel tubes, gel plates, and gel electrophoresis tanks were then printed using a 3D printer after optimization of the printing parameters. Then, the performance of the four kinds of gel electrophoresis devices was investigated using prestained protein molecular weight standards. The results showed that the single-channel slab gel electrophoresis design can quickly separate proteins with the best separation efficiency. Moreover, the effect of different separation gel lengths (5, 10, 15, and 20 mm) on protein separation was studied and it was found that 10% separation gels with a length of 5 mm could effectively separate prestained protein molecular weight standards (in the range of 15-250 kD) in 20 minutes. Next, the battery was optimized for the portable GE device and a 25 V lithium battery (70 mm×60 mm×40 mm) was used as the power supply, which could provide a constant voltage of 25 V for 100 hours during gel electrophoresis. Then, the One-Step Blue^TM reagent (Biotium, USA) was used to color the separation results of the five standard proteins (carbonic anhydrase, ovalbumin, bovine serum albumin, conalbumin, ribonuclease A), and the results were recorded by mobile phone. Finally, the proposed gel electrophoresis device was compared with the commercial device. The results showed that the two devices are comparable; however, the slab gel electrophoresis was faster, portable, and economical.