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Gel chromatography with 6% agarose gel (Sepharose 6B) can be used for measuring the Stokes’ radius of biological particles within the range of 1,5 nm and 35 nm. The molecular weight determination of proteins is not very reliable with this method. Hepatitis sera have been chromatographied to measure the size of hepatitis associated antigen (Australia-antigen).
The radius of this antigen was determined to be 10,3 nm, which agrees with the results of electron microscopy and ultracentrifugation. The Stokes’ radius of human serum IgM was found to be 10,6 nm.
The behaviour of molecules and particles of 2 - 400 nm radius in gel chromatography was investigated using sephadex, agarose, and pearl shaped cellulose gel of different porosity. Correlations between elution volumes and particle sizes are given in Fig. 1. We found that particles from ca. 400 nm diameter upwards were more or less irreversibly adsorbed depending on the particle size. So only 15% of rat liver mitochondria and 5% of E. coli bacteria could be eluted from the loose cellulose Cu3. It is assumed that this adsorption is due to the absence of Brownian motion of large particles, which therefore are more or less subject to the gravity and to adsorption forces of the gel.