Capillary electrophoretic separation of proteins and peptides using Pluronic liquid crystals and surface-modified capillaries

Separation of model mixtures of peptides/proteins carried out in a hydrophilically coated capillary in 10 mmol/l Tris and 75 mmol/l phosphate buffer containing 7.5% (w/w) Pluronic F127 copolymer (apparent pH 2.9) revealed that the separation is predominantly driven by the charge/mass ratio with little or no sieving effect. Using a coated capillary helped to remove current fluctuations that are observed in the fused-silica capillaries in the presence of the Pluronic copolymer. With peptides bearing distinct positive charge (polylysine of Mr around 3300) molecular sieving helps more detailed separation of individual species. Polyamino acids carrying negative charge can be brought to the detector window in the reversed polarity mode, however, no detailed separation of the individual species involved was observed under the conditions used. With a naturally occurring mixture of collagen fragments released by CNBr treatment of the protein the sequence of emerging peptides (positive polarity mode) with no relation to the rel. mol. mass could be revealed. It is concluded that separation of proteins/peptides in the presence of Pluronic in the background electrolyte occur on the charge/mass ratio basis with molecular sieving effects acting as a secondary partition mechanism.