Simplified Technique for Preparative Disc Electrophoresis

Abstract

THE disc electrophoretic method¹ is becoming an important analytical tool in the study of components of complex mixtures. While engaged in work on the separation of antigenic constituents of connective tissue, we did some experiments to adapt this method to a preparative scale. Our aim was to construct as simple and inexpensive an apparatus as possible. In the course of our experiments we became aware of the publications of Lewis and Clark² and Racusen and Calvanico³ on preparative disc electrophoresis. One of the instruments described by the former investigators seemed, after minor modifications, to be suitable for our purpose. The procedure finally devised differed from that of Lewis and Clark mainly in the use of a ‘Sephadex G-200’–sucrose mixture instead of the sample gel⁴ and in the arrangements for eluting the material from the poly aery lamide gel.