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A practicallaboratory method for cell electrophoresis in an agarose sol
Author(s) -
Gilman Robert L.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.1150070105
Subject(s) - agarose , electrophoresis , chromatography , agarose gel electrophoresis , gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids , materials science , chemistry , dna , biochemistry
The method presented in this article was developed specifically to be used for the electrophoretic separation of biological cells. This method uses low cost materials and ordinary clinical laboratory electrophoresis equipment. Results are reasonably fast; time of migration was 20 min using a constant current setting of 6 mA for a single 3 × 4 inch gel tray. The use of SeaPlaque agarose sol at 40 °C allows the cells to migrate freely, while the solidification of the agarose at the end of the migration period fixes the cells in place on the plate. Samples can be taken from any position on the plate while the sol is still liquid. With this method, differences in rate of migration of erythrocytes from selected species of mammals were demonstrated. The method was developed using erythorcytes for samples and without staining of gels or prestaining of samples. Sample sizes of 2000 to 4000 cells gave easily visible bands. Band of cells from some species migrated as much as 40 mm. Separations were done in polystryrene gel tryays. This technique will be tested in the near future for the separation of the various types of blood cells and for separating other cell mixtures, e. g. , bacteria.