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. 1971 May;21(5):903–906. doi: 10.1128/am.21.5.903-906.1971

Nonspecific Precipitation of Serum Proteins by Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in Agar Diffusion and Immunoelectrophoresis

E L Palmer 1, M L Martin 1, J C Hierholzer 1, D W Ziegler 1
PMCID: PMC377306  PMID: 4995734

Abstract

The anionic detergent sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), in a final concentration of 0.1% and greater, reacted with whole serum in agar diffusion and immunoelectrophoresis to form artifactual precipitin lines. These lines occurred when either Ionagar or agarose was used as the supporting gel and were not affected by the presence of urea and 2-mercaptoethanol. Analytic chemical tests confirmed that the precipitating agent is SLS, and staining techniques showed that the detergent precipitates both protein and lipoprotein components of whole serum. Multiple artifactual precipitin lines occurred with a wide variety of animal sera, and a single line formed with human 7S immunoglobulin. Hence, in agar diffusion studies in which SLS is present in the test system, these artifactual lines may be easily misinterpreted as true antigen-antibody precipitin reactions.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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