Analytical Sciences

Poly(methylmethacrylate) Microchip Electrophoresis of Proteins Using Linear-poly(acrylamide) Solutions as Separation Matrix

Hiroki OKADA,*¹ Noritada KAJI,*^1,*² Manabu TOKESHI,*^1,*² and Yoshinobu BABA*^1,*^2,*^3,*^4,*⁵

*1 Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
*2 MEXT Innovative Research Center for Preventive Medical Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
*3 Plasma Nanotechnology Research Center, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
*4 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 2217-14 Hayashi, Takamatsu 761-0395, Japan
*5 Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 38 Myodaiji Nishigo-naka, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan

Poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) microchip electrophoresis of sodium dodecyl sulfate-protein complexes (SDS-PC) using linear-poly(acrylamide) (L-PA) as a separation matrix was investigated. Prior to electrophoresis, channel walls of PMMA were modified with methylcellulose (MC) to prevent adsorption between channel walls and SDS-PC. Size-based protein separation (SBPS) was successfully performed using the MC-coated microchips with Ferguson plot-fittings. The entangled L-PA solution provided high resolution of peaks of SDS-PC when the concentration of L-PA was increased. Some investigations into the separation mechanism, such as the plot of the logarithm of mobility of each SDS-PC versus the logarithm of the molecular weight of the complex exhibiting linear behavior, indicated that the separation mechanism was dependent on mass discrimination, in accordance with Ogston model.

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