CALIBRATION OF GEL-PERMEATION COLUMNS IN THE HIGH-MOLECULAR-MASS RANGE - FIXED HUMAN THROMBOCYTES FOR THE ESTIMATION OF INTERSTITIAL VOLUME AND THE HEMOCYANIN OF THE VINEYARD SNAIL HELIX-POMATIA AS A MOLECULAR-MASS CALIBRATION SUBSTANCE

Human thrombocytes, fixed with formaldehyde, are shown to be a universal indicator of the interstitial volume in gel-permeation chromatography (size-exclusion chromatography) for gels of all molecular mass separation ranges. The fixed thrombocytes are simple to prepare and to handle. Furthermore, native or intramolecularly cross-linked haemocyanin of the Roman snail Helix pomatia is shown to be well suited as a molecular mass calibration substance. We propose 8.8 10(6) as its molecular mass for calibration. This haemocyanin can therefore be added to the list of globular protein molecular mass calibration substances in the range of very high molecular masses.