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Specificity
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Tissues were washed exhaustively with PBS to remove blood and other debris. A lysate was prepared by homogenizing the tissue and washing the cells in cold PBS. Washed cells were incubated at 4° C in modified RIPA buffer containing 150 mM sodium chloride, 50 mM Tris Cl, pH 7.4, 1 mM EDTA, 1.0% NP-40, 0.5% sodium deoxycholic acid and 0.1% SDS to lyse the cells. Protein integrity is ensured using a cocktail of protease inhibitors with broad specificity for the inhibition of aspartic, cysteine, and serine proteases as well as aminopeptidases (0.1 mM AEBSF HCl, 0.08 µM Aprotinin, 5 µM Bestatin, 1.5 µM E-64, 2 µM Leupeptin Hemisulfate and 1 µM Pepstatin A). The following phosphatase inhibitors were also added: 1 mM NaF and 1 mM Na3VO4. Cell debris was removed by centrifugation and membrane filtration. Protein concentration was determined by Lowry assay using a commercially available kit. The protein concentration was adjusted to 2 mg/ml and then an equal volume of 2X SDS-PAGE sample buffer was added.
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