Recovery of protein in preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

The recovery of protein in preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) is a function of protein load, buffer system (pH), and gel concentration. Recovery can be substantially improved (to about 90%) by polymerization of the gel in the presence of an extraneous protein (e.g., BSA, bacitracin) but not by addition of formamide, reducing agent, sucrose, or polyaminoacids to the gel.