Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of bovine serum albumin oligomers produced by lipid peroxidation

The oligomers of bovine serum albumin were produced by controlled reaction with peroxidizing linoleic acid to examine their possible utility as calibration proteins in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The polymerization was effected in reaction mixtures containing linoleic acid undergoing peroxidation in the presence of ascorbic acid, and conditions that yield soluble oligomers with a wide molecular weight distribution were established. The interaction of these soluble oligomers with sodium dodecyl sulfate exhibited a binding isotherm indistinguishable from that obtained with bovine serum albumin. Furthermore, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the albumin oligomers conformed to the empirical relation of molecular weight to mobility that pertains to the use of these oligomers as standard molecular weight markers.