Electrophoresis
Development & Consulting
Dr. Hanspeter Schickle
Wolfgang Gstrein

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General mistakes
When mounting up a horizontal electrophoresis run, several mistakes can be done.
Normally their occur already after starting by watching the power supply and the migration of the dyes:

No currant, 0 mA, no migration of the dyes:
1   The cables inside the chamber are not switched properly
2   The platin electrodes are not in contact with the electrode strips
3   The electrode strips are not in contact with the gel (no overlapping zone)
4   The power supply is not programmed in a correct way (no volt = no mA)

 Too fast migration of the dyes, gel is sweating and later burning:
The dyes of the samples and the gel should migrate around 0.5 mm per minute, not more!
1   Too much currant, too high mA value:
     a   Power supply is not programmed correctly
     b   A part of the gel runs with the conditions of a whole gel
2   The cooling device is not running correctly, or it is not pumping really through the cooling plate

Samples
The sample concentration should not be too high! As a sufficient pre-test the protein test-stick “Albym-Test” (Boehringer) can be used; available in every pharmacy (for urinary proteins).

Protein Test Stick

Even in a excellent performing electrophoretic system you will not get automatically acceptable results from every sample! There will be always 'trouble-making-samples', appearances, reasons and remedies see below:

EDC Electrophoresis Development & Consulting, Vor dem Kreuzberg 17, 72070 Tübingen (Germany)