Urea is a chaotropic agent useful for the solubilization and denaturation of proteins. Urea is also useful for the renaturation of protein samples previously denatured with 6M guanidine hydrochloride (inclusion bodies). Urea is commonly used for sample preparation prior to electrophoretic methods such as isoelectric focusing (IEF), SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and two dimensional electrophoresis (2DE). Preparing samples for 2DE typically involves solubilization, denaturation, and reduction in order to completely disrupt the interactions between the proteins. Urea is also used to facilitate the enzymatic digestion of proteins for analysis by mass spectrometry.
Storage Conditions
Supplied as 8M Urea Solution, 500mL. Store at room temperature.
