I use a bead homogenizer (Precellys 24) which can generate quite a bit of foaming. I am thinking of using anti-foam A (from Sigma) to reduce the foaming. The homogenate will be used for enzyme activity measurements and western blotting. Any comments welcome. Thanks.
No sorry Jonathan I use an the old fashioned homogenizer and have little issue if any with foaming.
I've never used anti-foam A, but I've used octanol from Sigma for anti-foaming in a micro-carbonic anhydrase assay. It worked well.
Hi Jonathan.
The only experience with anti foaming agents i personally have is in RNA/DNA isolation. Depending on the method you use the original acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction can produce some foam. Addition of Antifoam A seems to suppress the foaming without a significant impact on yield.
I would not recommend using it for WB samples as i would expect it to interfere with the solubilizing power of the detergents used.
Thanks for the advise. I will see if I can get away with running a dot blot rather than the western. I was planning on measuring enzyme activity first and then the immunoblot on the same homogenate.
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