A polymorphic variation in the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophores separation of carboxymethylated human hair proteins

We observed a variation in the one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) profile of carboxymethylated human hair proteins revealed by Coomassie staining or 14C-autoradiography in 4% of an Anglo-Celtic population in Armidale, Australia.     

Stochastic model for gel permeation separation of polymers

The stochastic theory of chromatography developed by Giddings and Eyring and by McQuarrie is applied to gel permeation chromatography (GPC) by first recasting their assumptions to fit the GPC process and secondly by making specific assumptions about the molecular size dependence of the rate constants λ₁ and λ₂ for entrapment and elution of a polymer molecule, respectively. The model assumes that: (1) a monodisperse sample is injected; (2) molecules behave independently within the column; (3) no molecular diffusion occurs; (4) the polymer molecules are unperturbed random coils; (5) entrapment sites in the bed are identical; (6) λ₁ is proportional to the probability P_e that the square of the polymer end-to-end distance is less than the square of the average pore radius in the bed; (7) λ₂ is constant. The calculated difference in retention times, t_R-t_o (where t_R is the retention time for a molecule of arbitrary molecular size and t_o is the retention time for a molecule whose size totally precludes entrance into the pores of the bed), is shown to be proportional to P_e. The model as thus applied is based on only one parameter. The theory is tested by examining the ratio P_e/(t_R ? t_o)exp, predicted to be constant, for narrow polystyrene fractions in the molecular weight range 1.1 × 10⁴ – 8.9 × 10⁵. Chromatographs were obtained by Moore and Arrington by using a θ solvent and a single column packed with a porous glass bed having a sharp distribution of pore sizes. Ratio values ranged from 0.046 to 0.073 with an average value of 0.058 ± 0.009. This relative constancy demonstrates semiquantitative utility of the model for gaining insight into the GPC process.     

Prototype for integrated two-dimensional gel electrophoresis for protein separation

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis practitioners have long waited for a fully automated system. This article presents an integrated platform that is capable of complete automation from sample introduction to spots detection. The strip gel for the first dimensional separation is fixed on the edge of a discrete planar stage before separation. A pair of platinum pin electrodes for isoelectric focusing (IEF) makes contact from underneath the stage. IEF is performed directly after rehydration and protein loading. After the first dimensional separation, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) equilibration is done on the same stage without moving the gel. The IEF stage is then moved horizontally to couple with a precast second dimensional gel. The <0.5 mm gap between the two gels is filled with poly (ethylene oxide) solution. After SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrohporesis separation, a charge-coupled device camera is used to detect spots via protein native fluorescence excited by a Hg (Xe) lamp with the gel inside the running cell. Potential for full automation is demonstrated with 0.5 microg of Escherichia coli proteins on this miniaturized platform. More than 240 spots are detected in a total experiment time of <2.5 h.     

A simple polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis procedure for separation of polyamidoamine dendrimers

A simple, inexpensive, and rapid electrophoresis technique was developed for use as a routine tool for evaluating purity of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers. A variety of factors influencing migration of generations 0-7 dendrimers on nongradient polyacrylamide gels were evaluated. The low generation dendrimers were found to be very sensitive to diffusion during or after electrophoresis. The proposed method incorporates steps that minimize diffusion, in order to obtain improved resolution and sensitivity, especially for the lower-molecular-weight dendrimers. This was accomplished by inclusion of a dendrimer fixation step with glutaraldehyde and performing the electrophoresis separation, fixation, staining, and destaining at 4 degrees C. PAMAM dendrimer separation was studied under basic and acidic conditions. Electrophoresis under acidic conditions gave increased resolution and sensitivity over separation at alkaline pH. Oligomers and trailing generations could be clearly separated and visualized under these conditions. The smallest PAMAM dendrimer, generation 0, was visible at 1.5 microg under the optimized acidic conditions. With slight modifications, this technique should be applicable to separation of other water-soluble dendrimers.     

Preparation of plant DNA for separation by pulsed field gel electrophoresis

A method was developed for the preparation of completely intact plant DNA embedded in agarose, and suitable for restriction enzyme digestion. Digestion with restriction enzyme was carried out according to modified protocols of Anand and Kenwrick et al. The new method of DNA isolation allows the separation of high molecular weight plant DNA by pulsed field gel electrophoresis.     

ssDNA functionalized nanodiamonds for uranium decorporation

The hunt for agents that are suitable for actinide decorporation to reduce the whole-body load of actinide in accidental internal exposure is the ever-lasting goal in radiation protection and medical treatment in nuclear emergency. All current decorporation agents can be categorized as two groups, one is the molecular ligands, and the other is the nanoparticles decorated with molecular ligands. Here in this work, functional nanodiamonds (fNDs) with ssDNA (the endogenous biomacromolecule rich in phosphate groups) loaded on the NDs is reported, which poses good uranyl adsorption selectivity, high cellular uptake, fast excretion, and effective decorporation of uranyl from rat renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52E). All those results corroborate that fNDs can potentially serve as a brand new family of chelators for actinide decorporation.     

Temperature-gradient gel electrophoresis for the detection of polymorphic DNA and for quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

In order to detect mutations in a gene, either known mutations from human diseases or artificial ones in transgenic animals, or to screen for not yet identified mutations in patients, a method is required which guarantees detection of mutations which might occur in every single position of the whole open reading frame (ORF). It will be shown that a combination of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TOGE) fulfills these requirements. By thermodynamic calculations the shift in the gel electrophoresis due to a mutation can be calculated in dependence on the position of the mutation. The theoretical results were tested with the mutations known so far. The quantitative determination of the copy number of a specific DNA or RNA sequence in a biological specimen (quantitative PCR) can be performed precisely and easily by combining PCR and TGGE. The system uses a quantification strategy of a new type of internal standardization. TGGE is applied to separate homo- and heteroduplexes which correspond respectively to standard and template sequences. The accuracy of this quantification strategy is very high, with a variability of < 15%. In addition to quantification, PCR/TGGE detects PCR artifacts and template mutants.     

N-Levulination of Guanosine

A procedure have been developed for the synthesis of the N-levulinoyl derivative of guanosine.     

On the separation mechanism of gel permeation chromatography

The separation mechanism of gel permeation chromatography was investigated by static experiments. It was found that the solute molecule is excluded from part of the inner space of the gel particle, which is entirely available to the solvent molecule. The excluded volume, ΔV, increases with increase of molecular size of the solute. A linear relationship was observed between the ΔV and the logarithm of molecular size. Excluded volume was found to be independent of solute concentration as was expected. Absorption effect was negligible with polystyrene gel. However, a strong effect was observed between acids and polydextran gel. The possibility of using absorption effects to increase the separability of GPC is suggested.     

Ion-exchange separation of proteins by polyallylamine-grafted cellulose gel

A cellulose-based anion exchanger bearing water-soluble polycation was tested for separation of proteins. The exchanger was obtained by partial oxidation of cellulose gel by aq. NaIO4 followed by Schiff base formation with polyallylamine (PAA, molecular mass 5000). The retention behavior of proteins for three grades of PAA-cellulose gels, with amino group contents of 0.35, 0.59 and 0.96 mmol/g cellulose, was examined at several pH values and compared with that for conventional DEAE-cellulose gel with amino group content of 1.07 mmol/g cellulose. The retention of proteins by PAA-cellulose gels was remarkably greater than that for the DEAE-cellulose gel. Pairs of proteins having close isoelectric points and molecular masses (human and bovine serum albumins; beta-lactoglobulin A and B) could be separated by the PAA-cellulose gel columns. Such efficiency can be ascribed to high local density of grafted polyallylamine, in contrast to the random and sparse charge distribution in DEAE-cellulose.     

Reaction of Cd(II)-Morin with dsDNA for biosensing of ssDNA oligomers with complementary, GCE-immobilized ssDNA

In this work, the complex cadmium(II)-morin was synthesized and its interaction with double-stranded salmon sperm DNA was studied by electrochemical methods on glassy carbon electrode (GCE). It was shown that Cd(II)-Morin with high electrochemical activity can intercalate into the double-helix DNA, and the binding stoichiometry and equilibrium dissociation constant according to the Hill model for cooperative binding were calculated to be 1.761 and 2.5 x 10(-5) M, respectively. Using Cd(II)-Morin as a novel hybridization indicator, the hybridization between the probe and its complementary and mismatched sequence was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), which was to access the selectivity of the developed electrochemical DNA biosensor. The complementary target ssDNA could be quantified over the range from 2.69 x 10(-8) M to 9.16 x 10(-7) M with a linear correlation of 0.9971 and a detection limit of 9.30 x 10(-9) M. These results demonstrated that the Cd(II)-Morin indicator provides great promise for the rapid and selective measurement of the target DNA.     

Calibration of polyacrylamide gel columns for the separation of oligonucleotides by capillary electrophoresis

Polyacrylamide-filled gel columns are used to separate oligonucleotide samples. For homopolymeric standard samples, plots of migration time versus molecular size are presented over a range of 30-160 bases. With 2.5-4% T and 3.3% C gels, good resolution over the examined mass range, with peak width at half height of 3 to 6 s, is obtained by applying electrical fields of 200-400 V/cm. The separation of heteropolymeric nucleotides by slab gel electrophoresis under routine conditions was compared with capillary gel electrophoresis. Using the same column and the same separation conditions, the plot of migration time versus base number is linear with an identical slope for three oligonucleotide samples which were examined, allowing a calibration of a gel-filled capillary for molecular mass determination.     

Characterization of single-stranded DNA separation by capillary gel electrophoresis

We have investigated the effect of polymer gel reconditioning, the shape of the capillary, the applied electric field, and the capillary length for single-stranded DNA. The polyethylene oxide gel had deformed under the high electric field causing the degradation of the separation power. By the reintroduction of the fresh polyethylene oxide gel for the next run, one-base resolution was recovered. It turned out that the tip of the capillary at the injection side needed to be clean and symmetric for much improved resolution. Changing DNA motion by the pulsed electric field resulted in the separation of DNA far more than 500 bases.     

An apparatus for continuous separation of macromolecules by combined electrophoresis and gel filtration

Summary An apparatus for continuous separation of soluble and particulate macromolecules, and of other electrically charged particles by combined electrophoresis and gel filtration, is described. The two principles, electrophoresis and gel filtration, which operate simultaneously at right angles, enable separation between the various macromelecules, depending upon differences in electric charge and molecular wight. The sample to be fractionated is fed continuously into the apparatus while the separated macromolecules reaching the distal end of the instrument are collected at the outlet ports. Data for a continuous fractionation of human plasma proteins using the instrument are given.     

Development of a gel monolithic column polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic device for rapid electrophoresis separation

A β-cyclodextrin (β-CD)-bonded gel monolithic column polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device was developed in a simple and feasible way. Before preparation of gel monolithic column in PDMS microchannel, PDMS surface was activated by UV light to create silanol groups, which is an active molecule to covalently bond 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-propyl methacrylate (Bind-Silane) and seal microfluidic device. By the way, Bind-Silane is a bifunctional molecule to link polyacrylamide (PAA) gel and inner wall of PDMS microchannel covalently. Allyl-β-CD was used not only as a multifunctional crosslinker in PAA gel to control the size of the pores, but also as a chiral selector for the enantioseparation. The stability, transferring heat and optical characteristic of the microfluidic device were examined. The separation capability of the gel monolithic column was confirmed by the successful separation of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled arginine (Arg), glutamine acid (Glu), tryptophan (Try), cysteine (Cysteine) and phenylalanine (Phe) in the PDMS microfluidic device less than 100 s at 36 mm effective separation length. A maximum of 2.06 × 10⁵ theoretical plates was obtained by the potential strength of 490 V/cm. A pair of FITC-labeled dansyl-d,l-threonine (Dns-Thr) was separated absolutely.     

Crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel for electrophoretic separation and recovery of substances

Crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel was tested on the feasibility for a preparative electrophoretic matrix. Horse heart myoglobin and bovine hemoglobin were well separated on the gel matrix electrophoretically by molecular sieving effect of the gel network. Relative mobilities of those proteins in the gel were larger than those in a crosslinked polyacrylamide gel of the same polymer concentration. After the separation, the protein-containing portion of the gel underwent swelling at 4°C and deswelling at 37°C, alternatively. As a result of the deswelling, each protein was recovered in a discharged solution out of the gel at almost 100% yield.