The Identification of Subcellular Fractions from Mammalian Cells

The chapters in the two volumes of Biomembrane Protocols are broadly devoted to the methodologies involved in the structural and functional characterization of cell membranes. In many cases, a study of a particular membrane presupposes that it can be isolated by disruption of the cells and fractionation of the resulting homogenate, and then identified unambiguously. The early chapters of this volume, Biomembrane Protocols: I. Isolation and Analysis , are concerned with this fractionation process. Later chapters are concerned with the determination of composition, whereas in the second volume, Biomembrane Protocols: II. Architecture and Function , the methods associated with architecture and function predominate.