Glycerol

Glycerol is used in sample preparation and gel formation for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In Vitro: Glycerol is often included in polyacrylamide gels to prevent dissociation of nucleosomes and other protein-DNA complexes during electrophoresis. With glycerol included, fractionation seems to be largely based on particle mass and charge. The concentration of glycerol during electrophoresis strongly affects the separation characteristics of polyacrylamide gels^[1]. Glycerol is an inevitable by-product of oils/fats processing, regardless of the pathway. Fermentative metabolism of glycerol has been studied in great detail in several species of the Enterobacteriaceae family, such as Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The use of anaerobic fermentation to convert abundant and low-priced glycerol streams generated in the production of biodiesel into higher value products represents a promising route to achieve economic viability in the biofuels industry^[2]. In Vivo: Glycerol can induce acute renal failure in rat models. Acute renal failure induced by glycerol or uranyl nitrate reduces the hepato-biliary transport of some drugs, modulates the distribution of drugs into the central nervous system and affects the activity of various hepatic microsomal enzymes ^[3].