Applications of Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane

The synonyms of tris base are 2-amino-2-hydroxymethyl-1,3-propanediol, 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol, tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane. Tris is an established basimetric standard and buffer used in biochemistry and molecular biology[1]. It may be used by itself as a buffer or as a component of mixed buffer formulations, such as Tris-EDTA (TE) buffer, Tris-acetate-EDTA (TAE) buffer, Tris-borate-EDTA (TBE) buffer, etc.[2]. The pH values of all buffers are temperature- and concentration-dependent. For Tris buffers, pH increases about 0.03 unit per °C decrease in temperature, and decreases 0.03-0.05 unit per ten-fold dilution. It is pure, essentially stable, relatively non-hygroscopic and has a high equivalent weight.[3]

Tris has been used:

• As a component of buffers, which is a cell dissociation buffer[4]

• For washing and saturation of wells in double sandwich ELISA immunoenzymatic technique[5]

• As assay buffer for reconstitution of extracted and dried protein sample[6]

• For the preparation of Tris-HCl buffer that is used to stabilize protein[7]

• In the extraction and enrichment of membrane proteins for separation by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis[8] 

• In studies of double stranded complexes of peptide nucleic acids (PNA) and their complementary DNA sequences, by use of anion exchange HPLC

• In capillary electrochromatography and UV analysis of tocopherols and tocotrienols
In addition, tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane can also be used as crosslinker to connect two molecules.

Example 1

4 g (12 mmol) of the thioxanthone esterand 3.3 g (24 mmol) potassium carbonate were added to 50 ml dimethyl sulfoxide. The mixture was heated to 60°C and 2.9 g (24 mmol) tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane was added and the reaction was allowed to continue at 60°C for 1 hour. The reaction was allowed to cool down to room temperature. The residual salts were removed by filtration and washed with 10 ml acetone. The reaction mixture was added to 100 ml water. The tris-hydroxyamido -thioxanthone precipitated, was isolated by filtration and dried. 4.9 g (86 percent) of the amidothioxanthone was isolated (TLC analysis : RP-C18 (Partisil™ KC18F, supplied by Whatman), eluent MeOH/0.5 M NaCI 8/2, Rf = 0.68)

Example 2

Into a 250 mL reaction vessel which is equipped with a stirrer and cooling device, add 9.20 g of 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-propanediol-phosphonoyl chloride (0.05mol) and 50 mL of acetone and water mixed solution in equal volume, open the stir for the solution dissolve evenly. At below 0-10 ° C stirring slowly and added the drops of Trismethyl aminomethane (0.05mol, 5.25 g), triethylamine (0.2mol, 20.24 g) as well as 100 mL of acetone and water mixed solution in equal volume, the system remains clear and transparent. The solution is added drop-wise after that, the system is allowed to react at 0-10 °C for 3 hours, and then heated at 50 °C reaction for 6 hours, remove the solvent with triethylamine hydrochloride, vacuum dry and then obtained white solid, yield is 96.8 percent.

References

1. Preparation of Buffers for Use in Enzyme Studies. Gomori G Methods in Enzymology 1, 1955:138-146.
2. Sambrook J, Russell DW. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. 2001.
3.Fossum J, et al. Tri (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane as Acidimetric Standard[J]. Analytical Chemistry, 1951, 23(3):491-493.
4. Sigurdsson EM, Calero M, Gasset M. Biochemical isolation of insoluble tau in transgenic mouse models of tauopathies[J]. Amyloid Proteins: Methods and Protocols, 2012: 473-491.
5. Foudrinier F. Clinical value of specific immunoglobulin E detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in cases of acquired and congenital toxoplasmosis[J]. Journal of clinical microbiology, 2013:41(4)
6. Rune EK, et. al. GLP-1 amidation efficiency along the length of the intestine in mice, rats and pigs and in GLP-1 secreting cell lines[J]. Peptides, 2014:55
7. Modrego J, et al. Expression of cytoskeleton and energetic metabolism-related proteins at human abdominal aortic aneurysm sites[J]. Journal of Vascular Surgery, 2012, 55(4):1124-1133.

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