Description: | A tendon/ligament is a fibrous connective tissue that attaches muscles to bone. Histologically tendons consist of dense regular collagen fibers that are very tough and notoriously difficult to homogenize. It is also very difficult to lyse the tendon tissues for total protein extraction. Traditional solution-based protein extraction methods, such as RIPA, are inefficient and the protein yield is very low. The profile of extracted protein is also biased (incomplete protein profile) with solution-based methods. This kit provides a highly efficient method for total protein extraction from human or animal tendons by a combination of mechanical extraction and chemical lysis. The cell lysis buffers used are much stronger than RIPA buffers. The kit features a simple, fast single-tube protocol and optimized buffers for tendons. Researchers have the option to choose either a denaturing or native cell lysis buffer, which is specifically tailored for tendons. The whole procedure takes less than 10 minutes to complete and the protein yield is in the range of 1-3 mg/ml. The materials provided are sufficient for 50 extractions. |