Electrophoresis

Field inversion capillary gel electrophoresis (FICGE) has been used for the separation of 0.1-23 kbp DNA fragments in a low-melting, low-gelling agarose gel. The influence of the amplitude of the voltage pulses, the pulse times and gel concentrations on the separation factor has been studied and found to be similar to that of polyacrylamide gels. Very high resolution can be obtained by altering continuously the pulse times and/or voltage according to a program tailor-made for the size of the DNA molecules to be separated (programmed FICGE). The advantage of these agarose gels in comparison with polyacrylamide gels is that they are nontoxic, easy to prepare and they have high UV transmission. They give a resolution that is equivalent to or better than that of polyacrylamide gels, and the risk of bubble formation in the gel is small. In addition, they are replaceable and, therefore, very convenient for automated analyses.

Gel electrophoresis in commercial automated apparatus (HPGE-1000, LabIntelligence, Menlo Park, CA) is conventially conducted in gels of 3 mm thickness at about 15 V/cm. Since the intermittent scanning of the gel allows one to measure band width as a function of migration time, resolution may be evaluated quantitatively. Comparing the value of resolution between two proteins in electrophoresis on agarose gels of 0.5 and 3.0 mm thickness and at various field strengths, it was found that within the given Joule heat dissipation capacity of the apparatus, resolution between the proteins is improved when the gel thickness is reduced from 3.0 to 0.5 mm, which allows for an increase in field strength from 15 V/cm, conventional for that apparatus, to 45 V/cm.

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was used to size intact chromosomal DNAs from Candida albicans, Kluyveromyces lactis, Pichia scolyti, and Pichia mississippiensis by optimization methods using, as size standards, concatenated bacteriophage lambda DNA, and intact and NotI digestion products of Schizosaccharomyces pombe chromosomal DNAs. These newly sized fungal DNAs can now serve as convenient and accurate size standards for DNA molecules between 0.7 and 3.3 megabases (Mb). These size standards are valid over a wide range of different electrophoretic conditions.

This paper describes both the experimental application and 3-D numerical simulation of isotachophoresis (ITP) in a 3.2 cm long "cascade" poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microfluidic chip. The microchip includes 10 × reductions in both the width and depth of the microchannel, which decreases the overall cross-sectional area by a factor of 100 between the inlet (cathode) and outlet (anode). A 3-D numerical simulation of ITP is outlined and is a first example of an ITP simulation in three dimensions. The 3-D numerical simulation uses COMSOL Multiphysics v4.0a to concentrate two generic proteins and monitor protein migration through the microchannel. In performing an ITP simulation on this microchip platform, we observe an increase in concentration by over a factor of more than 10,000 due to the combination of ITP stacking and the reduction in cross-sectional area. Two fluorescent proteins, green fluorescent protein and R-phycoerythrin, were used to experimentally visualize ITP through the fabricated microfluidic chip. The initial concentration of each protein in the sample was 1.995 μg/mL and, after preconcentration by ITP, the final concentrations of the two fluorescent proteins were 32.57 ± 3.63 and 22.81 ± 4.61 mg/mL, respectively. Thus, experimentally the two fluorescent proteins were concentrated by over a factor of 10,000 and show good qualitative agreement with our simulation results.

Abacavir (ABC) is an antiretroviral drug highly effective in the treatment of HIV, but its intake can cause severe hypersensitivity reaction (HSR). A strong association between HLA-B(*)57:01 and ABC HSRs was reported by several studies, which demonstrated that HLA-B(*)57:01 screening had a 100% negative predictive value and that it could accurately identify patients at high risk of ABC HSRs. We propose a new sequence-specific primer PCR assay based on fluorescence detection through CE which is highly sensitive, allowing the use of non-infective sources of DNA such as saliva and buccal swabs, in addition to blood and reproducible, allowing automation of the analytical process. The results of our study were first compared with a standard sequence-specific primer PCR technique and reported a concordance of 100%, and then a blind external validation further confirmed the accuracy of our method.

A rapid, highly sensitive and reproducible high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) method (electrokinetic chromatography with sodium dodecyl sulfate) is described for the determination of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and detoxified LPS (D-LPS), produced by both alkaline treatment in anhydrous conditions and mild acid hydrolysis, from Escherichia coli 055:B5 bacteria. LPS and D-LPS are separated and readily determined within 25 min on an uncoated fused-silica capillary using normal polarity at 20 kV and detection at 200 nm. A linear relationship (correlation coefficient greater than about 0.97) was found for the LPS and the two D-LPS species over a wide range of concentrations, from approximately 120 to 360 ng, with a detection sensitivity less than about 100 ng. Furthermore, HPCE was able to separate several molecular species mainly due to the presence of populations with O-specific polysaccharides of distinct and increasing mean chain lengths. This approach could be of great importance for the quantitative determination of LPS and D-LPS during the purification and preparation processes, also considering the importance of D-LPS in the preparation of human vaccines, and for the qualitative evaluation of the heterogeneity of LPS and the O-polysaccharide components.

Subjecting particles in the size range of 3 to 1085 nm radius (R) to capillary electrophoresis in buffered solution of entangled uncrosslinked polyacrylamide (M(r) 5 x 10(6)), it was found that particle size-dependent retardation ("molecular sieving") becomes electric field- and particle size range-dependent once the particle size exceeds 15-20 nm in radius. The field strength dependence of the retardation coefficient [KR = d(log mobility)/ d(polymer concentration] and the positive or negative sign of dKR/dR suggest the existence of two different mechanisms of molecular sieving depending on the particle size range: particles with diameters less than the screening length (or blob size) of the polymer network are thought to penetrate into the available spaces within a discontinuous polymer network; particles with diameters larger than the screening length (or blob size) of the polymer network are thought to undergo size-dependent retardation by exerting shear stress against polymer chains, and displacing them, so as to cause local deformations in a continuous polymer network. A limit in the separating capacity of molecular sieving, due to a sharp increase in the rate of band widening with polymer concentration, was found when the value of the retardation coefficient exceeded 60 (mL/g).

The present study is concerned with the application of nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) with electrochemical detection (ED) to the separation and quantitative determination of hydrazine (Hy) and its methyl derivatives. The best performance of NACE-ED was found when using 4 mM sodium acetate/10 mM acetic acid/methanol: acetonitrile = 1:2 as the running buffer, with a bare platinum working electrode set at +1.0 V in an end-column amperometric detection cell. The choice and ratio of suitable solvents for the separation and injection media played an essential role for the performance characteristics of the method. The limits of detection for Hy, methylhydrazine, symmetrical dimethylhydrazine, and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine were 5, 2, 12, and 1 ng/mL, respectively. This is between one and two orders of magnitude lower than that achieved by previously reported CE-ED methods in aqueous buffer systems in conjunction with various types of chemically modified electrodes. The practical utility of the new NACE-ED methodology is demonstrated in terms of the determination of traces of Hys in spiked environmental samples containing a wide range of explosives and related compounds.

A simple and sensitive fluorescent staining method for the detection of proteins in SDS-PAGE, namely IB (improved 4,4'-dianilino-1,1'-binaphthyl-5,5'-disulfonic acid) stain, is described. Non-covalent hydrophobic probe 4,4'-dianilino-1,1'-binaphthyl-5,5'-disulfonic acid was applied as a fluorescent dye, which can bind to hydrophobic sites in proteins non-specifically. As low as 1 ng of protein band can be detected briefly by 30 min washing followed by 15 min staining without the aiding of stop or destaining step. The sensitivity of the new presented protocol is similar to that of SYPRO Ruby, which has been widely accepted in proteomic research. Comparative analysis of the MS compatibility of IB stain and SYPRO Ruby stain allowed us to address that IB stain is compatible with the downstream of protein identification by PMF.

In this article, a CE with a new electrochemiluminescent (ECL) detection system was developed. A microfluidic ECL detection cell with less than 0.5 microL dead volumes was developed and used as detector for this system. A hydrofluoric acid-etched porous joint was made at 8 mm from the outlet of the separation capillary to isolate the CE high voltage from ECL detection. The proposed CE-ECL system was applied for separation and detection of some proteins labeled with tris(1,10-phenanthroline) ruthenium(II). High efficiency ECL-enhanced reagent, tripropylamine, was infused to the detection cell as coreactant by a micro-infusion system to obtain maximum and stable ECL signal. The performance of this setup was illustrated by the analysis of tris(1,10-phenanthroline) ruthenium(II)-labeled proteins. The background electrolyte for protein detection was 20 mM Tris-CH3COOH with 2.0% m/m PVP at pH 4.0. Under the optimal conditions, the corresponding LOD were 2.2 x 10(-10) M for HSA, 4.4 x 10(-10) M for casein (alpha-S1) and 5.1 x 10(-10) M for cytochrome c. The proposed method was also successfully used for the trace analysis of albumin in human urine without any pretreatment.

Chiral resolution of native DL-tartaric acid was achieved by ion-pair capillary electrophoresis (CE) using an aqueous-ethanol background electrolyte with (1R,2R)-(-)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane (R-DACH) as a chiral counterion. Factors affecting chiral resolution and migration time of tartaric acid were studied. By increasing the viscosity of the background electrolyte and the ion-pair formation, using organic solvents with a lower relative dielectric constant, resulted in a longer migration time. The optimum conditions for both high resolution and short migration time of tartaric acid were found to be a mixture of 65% v/v ethanol and 35% v/v aqueous solution containing 30 mM R-DACH and 75 mM phosphoric acid (pH 5.1) with an applied voltage of -30 kV at 25 degrees C, using direct detection at 200 nm. By using this system, the resolution (Rs) of racemic tartaric acid was approximately 1. The electrophoretic patterns of tartaric and malic acids suggest that two carboxyl groups and two hydroxyl groups of tartaric acid are associated with the enantioseparation of tartaric acid by the proposed CE method.

A gamma-cyclodextrin (gamma-CD) modified electrokinetic micellar capillary chromatography (MEKC) method was used for the enantiomer separation of a racemic trans-1,2-dihydro-1,2-dihydroxy-chrysene (chry-trans-1,2-diOH) mixture. The chiral resolution was strongly influenced by several important parameters: surfactant concentration and addition of organic modifier to the background electrolyte (BGE). An optimized electrophoretic system was used, consisting of the following conditions: 25 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.8, 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate, 20 mM gamma-CD, 7.4% v/v 2-propanol as BGE; the applied voltage, 18 kV, corresponded to 37 microA at a constant temperature of 25 degrees C. This electrophoretic method was applied for monitoring the chry-trans-1,2-diOH enantiomer formation in a real sample, obtained from in vitro metabolic activation of chrysene by phenobarbital-beta-naphthoflavone-induced rat microsomes. The (+) and (-) enantiomers were identified by the racemate and the single enantiomer standard addition method and by spectra comparison with the synthetic compound. Under the experimental conditions used for chrysene activation, the (+) optical isomer was the prevailing form. The CD-MEKC system showed high reproducibility and selectivity, allowing a fast and interference-free analysis even of the in vitro metabolic sample extract, without any pretreatment.

Stemona alkaloids represent an outstanding class of natural compounds due to their pharmacological profile and their complex and unusual molecular structures. The aim of this study was the development of the first CE method for the separation, identification and quantification of these pyrrolo- and pyrido[1,2-a]azepine derivatives in three Stemona species. The best results were obtained with a NACE-ESI-IT-MS method, utilizing an electrolyte of 50 mM ammonium acetate, 1 M acetic acid and 10% methanol in ACN and a separation voltage of 30 kV. Samples were injected voltage-assisted with 20 kV for 1 s. Isopropanol:water (1:1) was used as ESI sheath liquid at a flow rate of 3 microL/min. The assay was applied for the qualitative profiling of Stemona alkaloids in S. curtisii, S. collinsae and S. tuberosa. For unambiguous peak assignment of more than forty unidentified alkaloids MS/MS experiments were performed and fragmentation patterns studied. Subsequently the method was validated for the quantitative determination of four selected derivatives (RSD inter- and intraday <6%, LODs <7.5 microg/mL, LOQs <25.0 microg/mL, for all analytes, recovery rates >98.9%) in several Stemona sp. extracts.

In this report, we introduce a new micelle modifier useful to alter selectivity in micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC). 1,2-Hexanediol acts as a class I organic modifier in that its effects are on the sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micellar rather than the surrounding aqueous phase. This characteristic allows 1,2-hexanediol to improve resolution when applied at concentrations as low as 20 mM (0.25% v/v) by altering the selectivity observed with SDS alone. The effects of 1,2-hexanediol on the critical micelle concentration of SDS, electroosmotic flow, electrophoretic mobility of the SDS micelle, and reproducibility are presented. 1,2-Hexanediol had little impact on the migration time window at concentrations below 100 mM. Changes in selectivity induced by 1,2-hexanediol for a large set of model compounds are presented. Analytes capable of forming hydrogen bonds tend to decrease their interactions with the micellar phase while nonhydrogen bonding analytes increase their interactions. The usefulness of 1,2-hexanediol was demonstrated by examining its effects on the separation of dansylated amino acids. Eighteen of twenty amino acids could be separated with a resolution greater than 1.6 within 1600 s using a combination of 1,2-hexanediol and isopropanol.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are already used or have great potential in many industrial applications. Knowledge about their unique physicochemical characteristics makes ionic liquids suitable for the electrodeposition of metals with very low negative potentials. Aluminum with its good corrosion protection behavior has great capability to be electroplated from ionic liquid electrolytes on steel substrates. The stability of the chosen electrolyte is very important to ensure industrial applicability. Temperature and electrochemical long-term stability from electrolytes based on a Lewis acidic mixture of AlCl3 and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (EMIMCl) are investigated. A published method was modified to identify possible degradation products using mass spectrometric detection. The optimized method used an Agilent Zorbax SB-Phenyl column (2.0x150 mm, 5 μm particles) with a 20 mmol TFA and 5% ACN mobile phase. This method allowed the quantification of several imidazoles from 0.1-100 mg L(-1) . When analyzing the long-term stressed electrolytes no significant changes in electrolyte composition could be observed.

In this work, the use of the ionic liquid (IL) 1,3-dipentylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([PPIm][PF₆]) as an alternative extractant for IL dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (IL-DLLME) of a group of pesticides and metabolites (2-aminobenzimidazole, carbendazim/benomyl, thiabendazole, fuberidazole, carbaryl, 1-naphthol, and triazophos) from soils is described. After performing an initial ultrasound-assisted extraction (USE), the IL-DLLME procedure was applied for the extraction of these organic analytes from soil extracts. Separation and quantification was achieved by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection (FD). Calibration, precision, and accuracy of the described USE-IL-DLLME-HPLC-FD method using [PPIm][PF₆] as an alternative extractant was evaluated with two soils of different physicochemical properties. Accuracy percentages were in the range 93-118% with RSD values below 20%. A comparison of the performance of [PPIm][PF₆] versus that of the so-common 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([HMIm][PF₆]) was accomplished. Results indicate a comparable extraction efficiency with both ILs, being slightly higher with [HMIm][PF₆] for the metabolite 2-aminobenzimidazole, and slightly higher with [PPIm][PF₆] for triazophos. In all cases, LODs were in the low ng/g range (0.02-14.2 ng/g for [HMIm][PF₆] and 0.02-60.5 ng/g for [PPIm][PF₆]). As a result, the current work constitutes a starting point for the use of the IL [PPIm][PF₆] for further analytical approaches.

The most suitable conditions for selective precolumn derivatization of sialooligosaccharides, derived from gangliosides, with 7‐aminonaphthalene‐1,3‐disulfonic acid (ANDSA) and the subsequent separation of the derivatives by capillary electrophoresis are described. ANDSA‐sialooligosaccharide derivatives, which fluoresce at 420 nm when excited at 315 nm, were readily detected in capillary electrophoresis using an on‐column lamp‐operated fluorescence detector. In addition, the precolumn derivatization described here, which exploited the reactivity of the carboxylic acid group of the sialic acid residue of the oligosaccharides, replaced each weak carboxylic acid group of the parent sugar by two strong sulfonic acid groups. This allowed for electrophoresis over a wide range of pH and improved the resolution of the derivatives when compared to those obtained with underivatized sialooligosaccharides under identical separation conditions. The separation of sialooligosaccharides was best achieved when 75 m M borate, pH 10.0, was used as the running electrolyte. The derivatization and separation conditions described herein are expected to be readily transposed to the capillary electrophoresis of other sialooligosaccharides such as those derived from glycoproteins Presented partially in a lecture (M‐L7) at the Fourth International Symposium Workshop on Bioanalysis, Lawrence, KS, July 10–13, 1994 and as part of a lecture at Electrophoresis Forum '94, Munich, Germany, October 24–26, 1994. Part I is reference [9]. .

By using carboxymethyl (CM)-curdlan, a polysaccharide linked with the dye Remazol Brilliant Blue (RBB) as a substrate in polyacrylamide gels, the beta-1,3-glucanase in plant extracts can be detected directly by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In contrast to the usually used procedures for the detection of glucanases, e.g., colorimetric assay, overlay technique, enzyme activity staining using laminarin as a substrate, this method is rapid and allows both the determination of the activity and the location of the relative position of the multiple forms of beta-1,3-glucanases.

Beta-1,3-Glucanase (laminarinase) activity was detected after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under native conditions by using laminarin as substrate. Following incubation of gels, laminarin was stained with Aniline Blue. Under UV illumination, lysis zones appeared as dark bands against a fluorescent background. As low as 0.001 unit of commercial Penicillium laminarinase could be observed after incubating the polyacrylamide gel for 45 min at pH 5.0. Extracts of commercial Penicillium laminarinase exhibited four bands with lytic activity towards laminarin. Analysis of intercellular fluid extracts of tobacco mosaic virus-infected tobacco leaves revealed four beta-1,3-glucanases corresponding to three acidic pathogenesis-related proteins, b4 (2), b5 (N) and b6b (0), and one basic protein. The presence of laminarin in gels retarded the migration of some proteins with beta 1,3-glucanase activity. This change in electrophoretic mobility could be used as a complementary affinity test for identifying proteins with beta-1,3-glucanase activity.

A novel electrophoretic method for the analysis of oligosaccharides using DNA sequencer technology is illustrated using malto-oligosaccharide distributions obtained following isoamylase digestion of glycogen, wheat starch and potato starch. The debranched starches were derivatized at the reducing and with the charged fluorophore 8-amino-1,3,6-pyrenetrisulfonic acid (APTS). This highly reproducible method provides baseline resolution of oligomers from chain lengths of 3 to more than 80 glucose units, and exhibits high sensitivity with detection thresholds of one femtomole per resolved band. In addition, the reductive amination procedure attaches a single fluorophore per oligosaccharide, allowing calculation of the results on either a mass or a molar basis. The efficacy of the method is illustrated through the determination of the profile of individual oligosaccharides of chain length with a degree of polymerization (DP) < 80, derived from loading less than 15 ng per analysis of glycogen, wheat and potato starches. While the results obtained were superior in resolution and sensitivity to previously reported observations using a range of techniques, they were nonetheless consistent with the overall differences between these polysaccharides. The resolution, sensitivity, reproducibility and high throughput of the method provides substantial advantages over existing methods for the analysis of linear oligosaccharide chain length distributions.

The electrophoresis of epsilon-N-2-furoylmethyl-L-lysine (furosine) was studied in an attempt to develop a method for the identification and quantitation of this compound in processed food. The effect of pH and composition of electrolyte solution on both the electrophoretic migration of furosine and the electroosmotic flow in a bare fused-silica capillary of 75 mu m internal diameter was investigated. We demonstrate that the addition, to the running electrolyte solution, of N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-1,3-butanediamine (TMBD) at concentrations ranging from 20 to 80 mM improves peak efficiency and can be used to modulate the migration time of furosine by controlling the electroosmotic flow which is reversed from cathodic to anodic. In a sample of dried milk subjected to a long period of storage under controlled conditions, furosine could be efficiently and reproducibly separated and quantitated by employing as the running electrolyte 60 mM TMBD titrated to pH 2.5. Capillary electrophoresis is a promising technique for the rapid identification and quantitation of furosine in processed food.

The effect of N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-1,3-butanediamine (TMBD) in the running electrolyte on the electroosmotic flow and the migration behavior of four standard basic proteins in bare fused-silica capillaries was examined at pH 4.0, 5.5, and 6.5. Depending on the electrolyte pH and additive concentration the electroosmotic flow was either cathodic or anodic. A similar Langmuirian-type dependence of the electroosmotic flow on the concentration of TMBD in the running electrolyte was found at the three experimented pH values, which may be indicative of the specific adsorption of the additive in the immobilized region of the electric double layer at the interface between the capillary wall and the electrolyte solution. Electrophoretic separations of the four standard basic proteins performed at the three above pH values, showed well-resolved, efficient and symmetric peaks, demonstrating the utility of this additive for protein electrophoresis in bare fused-silica capillaries. The variations in separation efficiency, peak capacity, resolution and reproducibility of migration times as a function of the additive concentration at pH 6.5 were also examined.

beta-Glucanases were detected after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under native and denaturing conditions using various beta-1,3- and beta-1,4-glucans, including mixed glucans (laminarin, pachyman, carboxymethyl cellulose, lichenan and barley beta-glucan). After electrophoresis and incubation of gels, substrates incorporated into polyacrylamide gels were stained with specific fluorochromes, Sirofluor for beta-1,3 linkages and Calcofluor White M2R for beta-1,4 linkages. Under UV illumination, lysis zones appeared as dark bands against a fluorescent background. Enzymes of bacterial, fungal and plant sources could be revealed sequentially in gles containing mixed beta-(1,3)(1,4)-glucans by staining first with sirofluor followed by staining with Calcofluor White M2R. Active profiles were more diverse when substrates were stained with sirofluor. The use of purified sirofluor at pH 11.5 compared with Aniline Blue at pH 8.6 allowed better detection of beta-1,3-glucanase activities. In gels containing laminarin stained with sirofluor, bands exhibiting a more intense fluorescence than the background fluorescence were observed in addition to dark nonfluorescent bands. It is postulated that these two types of beta-1,3-glucanase activities differ by their enzymatic action (partial versus extensive hydrolysis). Analysis of fungal extracts using denaturing gels embedded with various beta-glucans displayed lysis bands migrating between 32 and 35 kDa.

4-Dimethylamino-6-(4-methoxy-1-naphthyl)-1,3,5-triazine-2-hydrazine (DMNTH) is a novel derivatizing reagent specially designed for the determination of carbonyl compounds. In this work, we describe the separation of DMNTH-derivatized carbonyl compounds by reversed-phase capillary electrochromatography (CEC). After systematic investigations of the effects of experimental conditions viz. pH and concentration of buffer, type of stationary phase, injection volume of sample, organic modifier, and temperature, optimal conditions were found. The sample compounds, which were separated with gradient high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), were separated by CEC under isocratic elution due to the high efficiency. Comparisons of separations by CEC and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) were made.

Six reducing monosaccharides (mannose, galactose, fucose, glucose, xylose, and arabinose) were derivatized with 8-aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (ANTS). Based on the chiral ligand-exchange principle using borate as a central ion of the chiral selector and (S)-3-amino-1,2-propanediol (SAP) as a chiral selector ligand, all of the six ANTS-monosaccharides were simultaneously enantioseparated using absorbance at 245 nm for detection. The optimum conditions for both high resolution and moderately short migration time consisted of 200 mM SAP-200 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2) containing 10% ACN as a BGE at 30 degrees C with an applied voltage of +30 kV. It was revealed that the proposed chiral ligand-exchange CE using the SAP-borate system was applicable to enantioseparation of not only diols but also polyols.