The effects of agarose gel strips without and with 0.03 m(r) electroendosmosis (EEO) on isoelectric focusing (IEF) were studied. It is shown that only agarose without EEO can be used for IEF. The effects of electrode buffer strips using agarose with different EEO of 0, 0.03, 0.08, 0.20 m(r) on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and native PAGE were also studied. It apparently did not affect SDS-PAGE, but affected native PAGE to a certain extent. The higher the EEO value was, the more water was present on the agarose gel strip during a separation. Agarose gel strips with an EEO of 0.2 m(r) are not suitable as electrode buffer strips for native PAGE.