Agarose, low gelling temperature

Agarose is a component of cell wall polysaccharides of marine red algae. It has high gelling property and is hydrophilic. It exists in random coil conformation.

Agarose, low gelling temperature has been used:

• in the single cell gel electrophoresis of glioblastoma multiforme cells for genotoxicity studies
• in the preparation of collagen-agarose co-gels
• in the embedding of shrimp brain sections

Agarose is used in enzyme immobilization and electrophoresis. It is also used in food and cosmetic industry.

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.