Use of Pectin in Gel Electrophoresis

Abstract

ELECTROPHORESIS of protein mixtures in agar gels has been described by Gordon et al. ¹. It has been developed by Grabar and Williams and used in their immuno-electrophoretic method². The latter, thanks to the specificity and sensitivity of immuno-chemical reactions, permits the detection of the presence even of the smallest amounts of components in a protein mixture and permits defining them by their electrophoretic mobilities. The agar gels can be dried and stained³, as in paper electrophoresis. However, the use of agar has one disadvantage : the samples are usually introduced in the gel, mixed with melted agar, thus being heated to 40°–45° C. Thus there is a constant danger of denaturing certain more sensitive protein components. A possible interaction of agar with some of the substances analysed cannot be excluded. Finally, it was of interest to find a gel from which the electrophoretically separated components could be extracted and estimated quantitatively.