Agarose

Agarose is a polymer of agarobiose (L- and D-galactose) subunits. It is isolated from the seaweed Gelidium and Gracilaria. Agarose forms non-covalent network of bundles. It is exploited for the separation of nucleic acids. The concentration and pore size of the gel are inversely related. Agarose has wide range of separation and is simple and rapid to prepare without the need of catalyst.

Agarose has been used:

• in the embedding of fluorescent nanospheres.
• for the generation of tissue-like phantoms similar to myocardial tissues.
• in hydrogel preparation.

The following is a list of properties associated with our agaroses:
Sulfate content - used as an indicator of purity, since sulfate is the major ionic group present.
Gel strength - the force that must be applied to a gel to cause it to fracture.
Gel point - the temperature at which an aqueous agarose solution forms a gel as it cools. Agarose solutions exhibit hysteresis in the liquid-to-gel transition - that is, their gel point is not the same as their melting temperature.
Electroendosmosis (EEO) - a movement of liquid through the gel. Anionic groups in an agarose gel are affixed to the matrix and cannot move, but dissociable counter cations can migrate toward the cathode in the matrix, giving rise to EEO. Since electrophoretic movement of biopolymers is usually toward the anode, EEO can disrupt separations because of internal convection.