Search

A method for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) quantitation in microliter-volume complex biochemical samples is described. The quantitation is based on the use of a dye, stains-all, the color of which changes from intense fuchsia to yellow upon addition of SDS. We show that this color change is gradual and proportional to the amount of SDS added to the stains-all solution, thus allowing its use to reliably quantitate SDS in biochemical samples by means of a visible light spectrophotometer. A large number of compounds widely used in biochemistry are herein shown not to interfere with the SDS measurement when they are present in the sample at usual biochemical concentrations. Furthermore, linearity between the color change and the amount of SDS present in the sample is never impaired when huge amounts of these compounds are also present, thus making this quantitation method highly reliable with use of a calibration curve. The method allows easy and reliable quantitation of microgram amounts of SDS in microliter-volume biochemical samples., (Copyright 2001 Academic Press.)

Chemical bonding reaction and immobilization through low energy radiation (heating) have been investigated to fix a side-chain liquid crystalline polymer (SC-LCP) on silica particles in order to use the resulting modified silica in normal-phase HPLC. Highly stable chromatographic stationary phases are observed under excellent polymer solvent flow conditions (THF) for both methods and better column efficiencies are also exhibited towards PAHs' separation compared to the classical coated stationary phase. The characterization of these new stationary phases and the rationale for improved column stability have been investigated by solid state 13C and 29Si CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy. It is clearly shown that the chemical bonding is achieved by the classical hydrosilylation reaction between PHMS chains and vinyl modified silica. The bonded polymer is likely a copolymer than a homopolymer. The immobilization of the SC-LCP by heating results in the breaking of Si-O-Si bonds of the polysiloxane chain after the attack of the silica surface silanols. Applications to fullerenes and carotenes separation of these bonded stationary phases are compared to the separation power of a classical monomeric C18 stationary phase in NP-HPLC as n-hexane-toluene or methyl-tertiobutyl ether-methanol mixtures.

High quality purification of membrane-spanning peptides and proteins remains a challenging problem. In this work we describe a tailored chromatographic purification of a synthetic 35-residue peptide corresponding to the transmembrane region of the tyrosine kinase receptor c-erb2/neu. Composed to over 70% by the amino acids alanine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine and valine, this peptide presents a very hydrophobic character. Product isolation from the complex peptide mixture, obtained after acid cleavage of the resin matrix used during the solid-phase synthesis, represents a difficult task. We propose a three step strategy based on gel permeation and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, using aprotic polar solvent mixtures. The challenge consisted in obtaining a sufficient amount of an extremely pure sample, in order to allow structural analysis by NMR spectroscopy. Keeping trace of the synthetic peptide throughout the different purification steps was assured by MALDI TOF mass spectrometry, and the final product purity was checked by coupled liquid chromatography-ESI TOF mass spectrometry.

The effects of halothane and dantrolene on sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes isolated from normal and malignant hyperthermia pig muscle have been investigated using 31P NMR and freeze fracture electron microscopy. The dynamical and structural changes are estimated from the second moment, as calculated from 31P NMR spectra. For both membranes, addition of halothane induces a similar decrease in the spectral second moment. At high concentration of halothane, freeze fracture replicas show small unilamellar vesicles or mixed micelles, uniformly sprayed in the case of malignant hyperthermia membranes but mainly aggregated for the normal ones. The effect of halothane on both membranes is partially inhibited by adding dantrolene. These results suggest that (i) the malignant hyperthermia syndrome is not directly related to the polar heads of phospholipids and (ii) dantrolene counteracts unspecifically the disturbing effect of halothane at the lipid level.

High resolution mercury nuclear magnetic resonance (199Hg-NMR) experiments have been performed in order to monitor mercury chemical speciation when HgCl2 is added to water solutions and follow mercury binding properties towards biomembranes or other ligands. Variations of 199Hg chemical shifts by several hundred ppm depending upon pH and/or pCl changes or upon ligand or membrane addition afforded to determine the thermodynamic parameters which describe the equilibria between the various species in solution. By comparison to an external reference, the decrease in concentration of mercury species in solution allowed to estimate the amount as well as the thermodynamic parameters of unlabile mercury-ligand or mercury-membrane complexes. Hence, some buffer molecules can be classified in a scale of increasing complexing power towards Hg(II): EGTA greater than Tris greater than HEPES. In contrast, MOPS, Borax, phosphates and acetates show little complexation properties for mercury, in our experimental conditions. Evidence for complexation with phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylserine (PS) and human erythrocyte membranes has been found. Hg(II) does not form complexes with egg phosphatidylcholine membranes. Interaction with PE and PS model membranes can be described by the presence of two mercury sites, one labile, the other unlabile, in the NMR time scale. In the labile site Hg(PE) and Hg(PS)2 would be formed whereas in the unlabile site Hg(II) would establish bridges between three PE or PS molecules. Calculated thermodynamic data clearly indicate that PE is a better complexing agent than PS. Evidence is also found that complexation with lipids uses at first the HgCl2 species. Interestingly, mercury complexation with ligands or membranes can be completely reversed by addition of decimolar NaCl solutions. Minute mechanisms for mercury complexation with the primary amine of PE or PS membrane head groups are discussed.