Summary
An activated charcoal filter has been used to remove ethidium bromide (EB) in water, various buffers, CsCl solutions and ethanol. In all cases studied, ethidium bromide was undetectable in the eluted liquid (contamination less than 0,5 μg/ml in a fluorescence detection assay performed in the presence of 10 μg/ml HeLa cell DNA). Since EB can be destroyed by heating at temperatures above 262°C, the contaminated charcoal filters can be easily incinerated thus providing a simple and cheap decontamination procedure which can be extended to other suspected mutagens such as propidium iodide (PI) which is commonly used in flow cytometric DNA analysis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
P. A. Sharp, B. Sugden, J. Sambrook, Biochemistry12, 3055 (1973).
L. S. Vindeløv, I. J. Christensen, N. I. Nissen, Cytometry3, 323 (1983).
G. Lunn, E. B. Sansone, Anal. Biochem.,162, 453 (1987).
P. Quillardet, M. Hofnung, Trends in Genetics4, 89 (1988).
O. Bensaude, Trends in Genetics4, 89 (1988).
T. Maniatis, E. F. Fritsch, J. Sambrook, Molecular cioning: a laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor. NY (1982).
K. S. Kirby, inL. Grossman andK. Moldave (eds), Methods in Enzymology, XII B, 87 (1968).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Menozzi, F.D., Michel, A., Pora, H. et al. Absorption method for rapid decontamination of solutions of ethidium bromide and propidium iodide. Chromatographia 29, 167–169 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02268705
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02268705