Recommendation A researcher had been trying to use PerkinElmer’s Soluene®-350 (part number 6003038) to digest agarose gels. We recommend the following procedure for reliable sample preparation and counting of agarose gels: 1. Place a section of agarose gel in a 20 mL glass vial. Although Soluene-350 has an excellent capacity for the solubilization of wet tissue, aqueous tissue homogenates, proteins, nucleotides and high water content biological samples, it cannot dissolve agarose gels. However, our journals did provide us with an alternate method that has proven reliable in many laboratories. It should be noted that techniques utilizing digestion or solubilization do not allow recovery of the original sample. 3. Incubate for 45 minutes at 65 °C to dissolve completely. 4. Allow to cool to room temperature. 5. Add 10 mL of PerkinElmer’s Hionic-Fluor™ (part number 6013319). * The sodium hypochlorite solution is an aqueous solution containing about 15% active material (about 5% to 6% available chlorine). This is available from any laboratory chemicals supplier. PerkinElmer, Inc. 940 Winter Street Waltham, MA 02451 USA Phone: (800) 762-4000 or (+1) 203-925-4602 www.perkinelmer.com For a complete listing of our global offices, visit www.perkinelmer.com/lasoffices ©2007 PerkinElmer, Inc. All rights reserved. The PerkinElmer logo and design are registered trademarks of PerkinElmer, Inc. Hionic-Fluor is a trademark and Soluene is a registered trademark of PerkinElmer, Inc. or its subsidiaries, in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks not owned by PerkinElmer, Inc. or its subsidiaries that are depicted herein are the property of their respective owners. PerkinElmer reserves the right to change this document at any time without notice and disclaims liability for editorial, pictorial or typographical errors. 007902_16 N O T E 2. Add 1 mL of sodium hypochlorite solution*. Discussion A P P L I C A T I O N Problem L S C C O C K TA I L S LSC in Practice Dissolving Agarose Gels