scholarly journals The instantaneous monitoring of polyacrylamide gels during electrophoresis

1976 ◽  
Vol 159 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Elliott

The advantages of being able to see protein zones in a gel during electrophoresis (and hence before staining) are pointed out, and a method is described which depends on local increments of refractive index in these zones. The use of local increments of refractive index in polyacrylamide gels for measuring protein concentrations in zones during electrophoresis is briefly considered; it is found that such increments are greater than would be expected from the amount of protein when sodium dodecyl sulphate is present. The enhancement depends on conditions and time of running. This makes quantitative estimates difficult, but the sensitivity of detection of protein zones by observations based on refractive-index changes is greatly increased by this property of sodium dodecyl sulphate. Methods are described for making optically uniform gels (both with uniform and with graded concentrations of polyacrylamide), necessary for observation of small changes in refractive index. A simple dark-field system of observation is described. Examples are given showing protein samples observed with the system during electrophoresis and compared with the same gel stained with Coomassie Blue after completion of the run. Under optimal conditions the optical method is comparable in sensitivity with staining. With the proteins of lower mol.wt. (approx. 15000), the optical method is not so sensitive, becoming less sensitive with longer running time. This loss of sensitivity is greatly decreased by using more concentrated polyacrylamide gels, and graded gels are therefore more suitable for optical observation than are uniform gels. The observation of protein zones during electrophoresis adds nothing to the time needed for making a stained gel and gives much information long before it can be obtained from the stained gel.

1980 ◽  
Vol 189 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
J A Tyler ◽  
T E Cawston

1. Properties of a purified chemically activated form of pig synovial collagenase were examined and compared with a spontaneously active form of the enzyme. 2. The active enzyme has a specific activity of 53 000 units (microgram/min)/mg, a mol.wt. of 44 000 (by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyarcylamide-gel electrophoresis in 2-mercaptoethanol) and pI 5.2 (by isoelectric focusing in polyacrylamide gels). 3. The activity has the characteristics of a metalloproteinase that degrades types I and III soluble or insoluble collagens in preference to type II, at an optimum pH of 6.5-8.5. 4. There is no detectable difference in these properties between the chemically activated and spontaneously active form of collagenase.


1977 ◽  
Vol 161 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
R J S Julian

A steroid-sensitive aldehyde dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.3) was purified from rabbit liver and is homogeneous by the criterion of electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels with or without sodium dodecyl sulphate. The enzyme is tetrameric, of subunit mo.wt. 48 300, and contains no tightly bound zinc. The fluorescence of the protein is decreased in the presence of progesterone, which is inhibitory to the reactions catalysed by the enzyme. When NADH is bound to the enzyme, the fluorescence of the coenzyme is augmented to an extent independent of the presence of steroids or acetaldehyde. The purified enzyme catalyses the oxidation of acetaldehyde and glucuronolactone, and the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate. Each of these reactions is inhibited by progesterone in such a manner as to suggest the formation of a catalytically active enzyme-hormone complex. Diethylstilboestrol inhibits the hydrolysis of esters by this enzyme, but stimulates the oxidation of aldehydes, except at low aldehyde concentrations; the ligand is then inhibitory. NADH inhibits the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate by the enzyme in a partially competitive fashion.


1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 709-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
M R Green

Proteins in colostrum and skimmed milk from humans and mice were separated by electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels and stained with Coomassie blue (CB), Ethyl-Stains-all (ESA), and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) to investigate changes that may occur in milks throughout lactation. In mouse colostrum but not in mature mouse milk, a PAS-positive protein of apparent molecular weight of 60,000 stained prominently blue with ESA. A protein in human milk with a molecular weight of 68,000 stained similarly but was present throughout lactation. The intensity of blue staining of these minor proteins in milk approached that obtained with casein phosphoproteins. The metachromatic dye ESA stains phosphoproteins and sialic acid-rich glycoproteins blue to blue-green. Removal of phosphorus from the former and sialic acid from the latter results in those proteins staining red with ESA. The intensity of blue staining of the 60,000 and 68,000 Mr proteins was diminished but not lost following treatment with phosphatase. It was eliminated following neuraminidase digestion of the mouse protein and mild acid hydrolysis of the human protein. Coomassie blue staining of the proteins was not affected by these procedures. Following electrophoresis of milk and milk fractions in a non-sodium dodecyl sulfate-containing system, the proteins were identified by their characteristic staining properties with ESA and isolated.


1976 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. ST G. Hyslop

SUMMARYExtracts of 3 soya bean preparations, used commercially in certain countries to replace part of the meat in popular meat products, were made by treatment with (i) sodium dodecyl sulphate, (ii) Triton-X100 or (iii) n–Butanol. Similar extracts were made from beef and pork.All extracts were examined by electrophoretic and immunological techniques. Stained polyacrylamide gels revealed distinctive protein bands after electrophoresis. The migration rates of corresponding bands differed between beef and pork extracts. However, the migration rates of vegetable bands revealed certain similarities, but differed very greatly from those of animal origin. Characteristic fast-migrating S-bands were distinguishable only in extracts of vegetable protein. Immunodiffusion tests, using antisera produced in rabbits against each extract, revealed varying degrees of similarity between extracts of vegetable origin, but the antisera were specific for either vegetable or animal protein.


1974 ◽  
Vol 139 (3) ◽  
pp. 653-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Anderson ◽  
T. Cawston ◽  
G. C. Cheeseman

The molecular weights of milk-fat-globule-membrane proteins solubilized in sodium dodecyl sulphate were estimated by gradient gel electrophoresis. Standard curves were calibrated from both protein and glycoprotein markers of known molecular weight. Six major proteins were observed with Coomassie Blue staining and six with periodic acid–Schiff staining. The behaviour of the membrane proteins and the marker proteins was compared on several different single strength sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gels between 3 and 12% (w/v). The results were used to calculate the free electrophoretic mobility and retardation coefficient of each protein. Glycoprotein markers had a significantly lower mean free electrophoretic-mobility value than the protein markers. Three of the milk-fat-globule-membrane glycoproteins were shown to be independent of any of the Coomassie Blue-stained bands. On the basis of a comparison of the free electrophoretic-mobility and retardation- coefficient values of markers and unknown proteins the most appropriate standard curve for molecular-weight estimation was chosen.


1972 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. P. Griffith

The effect of reduction of intramolecular disulphide bridges on the mobility of proteins in 5% (w/v) polyacrylamide gels in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate was investigated. A series of polypeptide polymers, containing up to 68 intramolecular disulphide bridges, was prepared by cross-linking proteins of known structure with glutaraldehyde. These model polypeptides were denatured with heat, sodium dodecyl sulphate and urea, and their mobilities in sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gels compared before and after reduction with dithiothreitol. The mobilities of polypeptides containing no cystine were unaffected by reduction. However, reduction generally decreased the mobilities of polypeptides containing cystine; the extent of this decrease depended on the number of cystine residues originally present in the polypeptide polymer, and on the protein from which the latter was derived. In contrast with their higher oligomers, the monomer of lysozyme and the dimer of ribonuclease increased in mobility after reduction. The reduced polypeptide oligomers formed by reaction with glutaraldehyde were generally found to migrate at a rate significantly faster than was expected from their calculated molecular weights. It was concluded that the use of unreduced proteins and protein aggregates for molecular-weight measurements by the sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide-gel method may give erroneous estimates of the molecular weight of any protein being investigated.


1984 ◽  
Vol 221 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Wicheanvonagoon ◽  
I J Arinze

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase was purified from mitochondria of guinea-pig liver by affinity chromatography on GMP-Sepharose. The enzyme was purified 100-fold to a high degree of electrophoretic homogeneity as judged by detection of a single protein band on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels. The yield was about 16%. The Mr of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 68500 +/- 680 by analysis on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels. Antibodies raised in rabbits against the purified enzyme were highly specific for mitochondrial phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and did not precipitate the cytosolic form of this enzyme from either rat or guinea-pig liver cytosol. The use of this antibody showed that starvation does not increase the amount of the enzyme. However, neonatal-development-dependent increase in its activity is shown to be mediated by accumulation of phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase-specific protein.


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