Polysaccharides agarose gel

Entrapment of enzymes and cells, especially in polysaccharide gels is very popular, because it has the advantage of high enzyme stability and ease of preparation. Firefly and bacterial luciferases are very labile, and hence agarose is mostly used for its low gelling temperature (26-30 °C). 

Gel Filtration Chromatography Proteins that differ in mass can be separated on a column composed of porous beads made from polyacrylamide, dextran (a bacterial polysaccharide), or agarose (a seaweed derivative), a technique called gel nitration chromatography. Although proteins flow around the spherical beads In gel filtration chromatography, they spend some time within the large depressions that cover a bead s surface. Because smaller proteins can penetrate into these depres-... 

The effective medium approach, including both hydrodynamic and steric interactions (Figure 4.13), compares favorably with experimental results for the diffusion of proteins and polysaccharides through agarose gels [81, 82]. 

Recent studies by electron microscopy (L4) have shown that the macromolecules of the gel agarose (a major constituent of agar) exist as long and relatively straight threads. This suggests a gel structure of loosely interwoven, extensively hydrogen-bonded polysaccharide macromolecules. 

Improved polysaccharide gels Cross-linked agarose Large pores, moderate compression Sepharose FF, Source, AP Biotech... 

Agar gives sufficiently solid gels which protect the system from convection even at very low concentrations of agar even very big molecules move freely in such a gel. Agarose is free from acidic polysaccharides and thus electroosmosis and cation-exchange complications are reduced or prevented. Both media are used especially for Immunoelectrophoresis. 

Purifications are made simpler with Toyopearl HW media because there is no risk of leached polysaccharides to contaminating eluted fractions. Saccharide derivatives have been known to leach from conventional low-pressure column packings, such as dextran or agarose gels. 

Agarose gels have been used for more than two decades to separate polysaccharides (17-22). In particular, Sepharose CL 2B is widely used (6-8) to separate native starch, but continuously improved mechanical and chemical stability made all of the Sepharose CL gels perfect systems for the analysis of high molecular and broad distributed polysaccharides (23-28). 

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