Nafion®-separated electrode solutions in isoelectric focusing

In the present paper, we present our results from studies where the electrode solutions were separated from the carrier with the polytetrafluoroethylene-based membranes (Nafion®). We achieved a 40-fold decrease of the average ionic strength in the gel and a twofold lowering of the current already during the first 30 min from the start of IEF, as compared to the routinely employed method. The change of these parameters made it possible to carry out the electrophoresis under conditions considerably closer to steady state, and to achieve a sharp protein separation and shortening of the duration of the process. The comparative analysis of the electrophoretic parameters in question proved that the basis for this newly developed improvement of the method is the selective restriction of the processes of migration and diffusion in the whole electrophoretic system, due to the specific properties of the semi-permeable membrane Nafion®.