Development of a thermoelectric cooling apparatus for high-voltage isoelectric focusing on a cellulose acetate membrane.

To develop an isoelectric focusing apparatus using a cellulose acetate membrane (Separax EF), we have designed a thermoelectric cooling isoelectric apparatus. This apparatus has two characteristics. Firstly, the cooling system was switched to a thermoelectric cooling system from an ice-cooling system. Secondly, the chamber lid of the electrophoretic apparatus was also devised so that samples could be applied without opening the chamber lid. With this apparatus we could perform the isoelectric focusing without worrying about room temperature and humidity in the laboratory. Applying 2000 V for an extra 5 min with our module cooling system, we achieved a much higher degree of resolution with three sheets of cellulose acetate membrane (Separax EF) overlaid for simultaneous electrophoresis. Thus, three types of information could be obtained from only one electrophoretic procedure.