Studies on the actions of glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, and mixtures of glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde on tissue proteins.

The effects of aldehyde fixation on tissue proteins was studied using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Fixation with low concentrations of formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde had only a slight effect on the protein banding pattern. On the other hand, most of the original protein bands were absent after a short treatment with mixtures of formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde. Spectral absorption measurements showed a stronger absorption at both gamma = 280 nm and gamma = 235 nm with the glutaraldehyde-formaldehyde mixture than with glutaraldehyde alone.