Estimation of the molecular weights of acidic mucopolysaccharides by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

• Published in: Analytical biochemistry Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 88 - 92
• Main Authors: Hilborn, J.C., Anastassiadis, P.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 1971
• Subjects: Acrylates; Chondroitin
• ISSN: 0003-2697; 1096-0309
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(71)90465-9

The work of Allison and Humphery (1) provided what appears to be the first evidence that the sieving effect of a biogel could be used for the estimation of the molecular weights of polymers. While studying antibody-antigen diffusion coefficients, they noted that, as agar concentration in the gel increased, the size of the antigen which could migrate was decreased, and using this observation they were able to estimate, with a gel of proper agar concentration, the molecular weights of several antigens to within 30%. Smithies (2), using starch gel electrophoresis, suggested that a relationship existed between relative retardation of the mobility of proteins and their molecular size. Both Biogel P300 and DEAE-Sephadex have been used as molecular sieves in the estimation of molecular weights of some acidic polysaccharides by Anderson et al. (3). The most widely used medium for molecular weight estimation of proteins and polypeptides by electrophoresis is the acrylamide gel (4–13). An extensive study on the reliability of this technique has recently been published (14). Following the separation of acidic mucopolysaccharides on polyacrylamide gel (15), the possibility of estimating the molecular weights of acidic mucopolysaccharides from their relative mobilities was investigated.