The following project has been made in collaboration with, Denator AB, a biotechnology enterprise. One-dimensional electrophoreses have been used to analyze protein contents of tissue samples. Tissue samples have been either treated according to the company´s newly developed tissue treatment technique or not treated at all and comparisons between these samples have been made. In order to see differences in protein patterns between samples more clearly, a conversion method has been developed where electrophoresis gel visual patterns are used to produce curves, similar to densitometer curves.

Denator AB would like to know if the proteins in their treated samples will change visibly over 48 h when incubated at room temperature. This has been investigated using the above mentioned method. A comparison has also been made using untreated samples incubated in the same way.

The analyses have been made at two gel densities, 10% and 12%. The series of samples consisted of both treated and untreated samples. Incubations were made for different time intervals in room temperature, up to 48 h. Gels were scanned and the files were used for producing curves where the colour intensity along a track was used for ordinate and the protein travel distance was used for abscissa.

Using this method, no change in patterns of Denator treated samples could be seen, strongly indicating efficient conservation of the samples. The untreated samples, however, show visible changes with time, indicating that the sample proteins were

partly decomposed into smaller fragments with time. A striking result of the analyses is a clearly visible difference in the original patterns of untreated and treated samples before incubation. This indicate that non treated samples undergo a very quick process of decay.