Crude Lecithin Research Articles

The early attempts to separate the nuclei from avian erythrocytes resulted in obtaining an amorphous mass of nuclear material. Warburg1 was the first to isolate the separate nuclei. He used a freezingmelting technic. The same method was used by Miyake.2 The disadvantages of this method are: partial agglutination and damage of nuclei, incomplete hemolysis and the necessity of further separation.The method to be described leads to a stable suspension of free nuclei which probably have been less damaged than in the freezing technic. The method is based on the hemolysis of hen erythrocytes with lysolecithin in neutral saline solution, washing the nuclei with saline and resuspension in saline.Lysolecithin was prepared as follows: Lecithin emulsion (0.5 g per 20 ml) was made in phosphate buffer pH 7.0-7.1 (crude lecithin recovered from cadmium salt of student preparation was used). The lecithin emulsion was ground with poison glands of 100 bees (lecithinase A), incubated during 24 hours at 37°C and filtered thr...