exposing tritium gels

[Stephen R. Lasky, Ph.D.]

In article <1995Jul19.123814.8907 at mbcf>, heath at mbcf.stjude.org
(Richard_Heath) wrote:

> In article <f.a.cassidy-1807950943510001 at bcs93.bham.ac.uk>,
f.a.cassidy at uk.ac.birmingham (Fiona Cassidy) writes:
> > I am running SDS PAGE and IEF gels of proteins which I have labelled with
> > tritium, and would like to expose wet gels. I am wondering if wrapping
> > these gels in cling film/saran wrap/ cellophane or something similar will
> > cause any problems with the signal detection?  I'd be grateful to hear if
> > anyone has done this in the past
> > thanks
> 
> I think your main problem is going be the *wet* gel.  As far as I am aware,
> tritium does not have the energy to escape from wet gels, so adding a
layer of 
> cling film won't make that much of a difference!  I think you are going
to have
> to dry them first.
> 
> Richard

Repeating the point I made before, tritium really doesn't have enough
energy to expose film even from dried gels.  You have to enhance the
signal using fluorography.  Although I never attempted to do it, I would
suspect that after enhancing the gel, you could see your bands, even in a
wet gel.

SRLasky