GB1067310A - Improvements in or relating to the destaining of media following electrophoresis and subsequent staining - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:1067310/C6-C7/1> Apparatus for destaining media from which excess stain is to be removed after an electrophoresis run includes an enclosure 20 (shown upright in a tank 1 in Fig. 2) for the stained media, e.g. gel columns 28 of agar or polyacrylamide, formed between two spaced porous plastics sheets 23, 24, e.g. each mounted between a border frame 26, 25 and a central frame (21), adapted, e.g. by wedging the enclosure between fixed U-shaped frames 17, 18 using wedges 27 and a resilient sealing strip 29, to press with their inside faces against opposite sides of the media, and to contact with their outside faces a buffer solution, e.g. of 10% acetic acid, contained in each of two chambers, each associated with an electrode 10, 11 and separated from one another by the enclosure. The application of D.C. voltage between the electrodes produces migration of the unbound stain through one of the sheets to the buffer solution in one of the chambers. The apparatus may include cooling compartments 4, 5 (Fig. 2) separated from respective chambers by partitions 8, 9 to cool the buffer solution during destaining. All non-porous parts, particularly the enclosure wall, are made preferably of transparent plastics material e.g. methylmethacrylate. The two electrodes 10, 11 may be carbon rods extending parallel to one another and secured to the tank end-walls by grommets 13 (Fig. 2). As shown in Fig. 5, the stained media e.g. gel slab 73 may be placed between an inclined lower porous plastics sheet 50 and upper dialysis membrane 74, similarly mounted between removable frames 48, 66, 80, serving to separate the enclosure from lower and upper chambers 40, 39, each provided with a valve-controlled outlet (60) for releasing buffer solution and a slot-like filling opening 46, 83, and containing platinum wire electrodes 64, 91 each looped to and fro between parallel insulating rods 61, 62 and 88, 89. The platinum wires may be replaced by wire meshes or graphite electrodes.