Characterization of low viscosity polymer solutions for microchip electrophoresis of non-denatured proteins on plastic chips

Abstract

In this paper, we study characteristics of polymers (methylcellulose, hypromellose ((hydroxypropyl)methyl cellulose), poly(vinylpyrrolidone), and poly(vinyl alcohol)) with different chemical structures for microchip electrophoresis of non-denatured protein samples in a plastic microchip made of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Coating efficiency of these polymers for controlling protein adsorption onto the channel surface of the plastic microchip, wettability of the PMMA surface, and electroosmotic flow in the PMMA microchannels in the presence of these polymers were compared. Also relative electrophoretic mobility of protein samples in solutions of these polymers was studied. We showed that when using low polymer concentrations (lower than the polymer entanglement point) where the sieving effect is substantially negligible, the interaction of the samples with the polymer affected the electrophoretic mobility of the samples. This effect can be used for achieving better resolution in microchip electrophoresis of protein samples.

Transient electroosmotic flow of Maxwell fluids in a slit microchannel with asymmetric zeta potentials

“…This LOC technology offers solutions for high throughput and highly specific analysis for chemistry, biology and medicine, while consuming only tiny amounts of samples, reactants and space [2]. By reducing the times and costs of assays, microfluidic devices receive great attention from different scientific and engineering applications such as cell culture systems to drug delivery and discovery [3], cell and molecular biology, DNA cloning, and hematology [4], separation of proteins [5], detection of bacteria and viruses [6][7][8][9] and mixing operations [10,11]. The previous tasks are implemented in the study of biofluids whose behaviors are considered as non-Newtonian fluids such as blood [12], saliva [13,14] and synovial fluid [15], among others.…”

Microchip immunoaffinity electrophoresis of antibody–thymidine kinase 1 complex

“…One of the challenges in using PMMA for microfluidics is its hydrophobicity that affects reproducibility in separation of proteins . Cellulose‐based polymer dynamic coatings are effective at inhibiting the nonspecific adsorption of proteins in polymer microfluidic devices by increasing the hydrophilicity of the surface . Three different molecular weight MCs were evaluated as dynamic coatings.…”

Polymer sieving matrices in microanalytical electrophoresis

“…32,33,39,42,47,56,57 The researchers reported SDS CGE of proteins on a PEG-coated commercial PMMA microuidic chip. 32 Here, a covalently attached PEG coating effectively suppressed protein adsorption.…”

“…MC is relatively hydrophobic and, thus, oen used for coating of polymeric microuidic chips; MC does not adsorb well on glass surfaces. 56 A MC sieving matrix is usually used with a detergent for proper dynamic coating and separation resolution. 47 Interestingly, MC solution at less than the entanglement point (0.01%) can still separate 47 and reducing the injection pressure required for pressure loading of a sieving matrix of concentrated MC solution (>1.5%) into microuidic channels.…”

“…56 These researchers found HPMC reduced proteinadsorption most effectively, among the four water-soluble polymers considered. HPMC was also observed to be effective at attenuating EOF.…”