Cell and tissue lysis hub



This page should point you to the many different general and lab-specific protocols describing tissue and cell lysis and serve as forum for comparison. The ups and downs of various methods from sonication, homogenization, freeze-thaw cycles, and detergent-based lysis are examined below.

Sonication
material: ultrasonication bath or rods
 * most efficient method of cell fractionation
 * problem: heat build up which can denature proteins (proportionate to length of sonication)
 * precaution: do on ice and sonicate intermittantly

Homogenisation
material: drills (polytron), pestle/tube (dounce) bead beaters
 * best for animal tissue; less suitable for cells
 * precaution: do on ice to reduce heat build-up and denaturation

Freeze-thaw
material: pestle and mortar, liquid nitrogen
 * least effective method
 * plus: does not denature proteins as much as other methods

Detergents
no additional material required, just the chemicals and typical tubes
 * chemical method of lysis
 * problems: detergent may inhibit subsequent reactions
 * problems: detergent may disrupts protein interactions

Related hub pages

 * RNA extraction

Related discussions on BioForum

 * cell lysis methods comparison
 * what solution to use for cell lysis