Microsome Isolation Kit

Microsomes are spherical vesicle-like structures formed from membrane fragments following homogenization and fractionation of eukaryotic cells. The microsomal subcellular fraction is prepared by differential centrifugation and consists primarily of membranes derived from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi apparatus. Microsomes isolated from liver tissue are used extensively in pharmaceutical development, toxicology and environmental science to study the metabolism of drugs, organic pollutants and other xenobiotic compounds by the cytochrome P450 monooxidase (CYP) enzyme superfamily. Microsomal preparations are an affordable and convenient in vitro system for assessing Phase I biotransformation reactions, as they contain all of the xenobiotic-metabolizing CYP isozymes and the membrane-bound flavoenzymes (such as NADPH P450-Reductase and cytochrome b5) required for function of the multicomponent P450 enzyme system. BioVision’s Microsome Isolation Kit enables preparation of active microsomes in about one hour, without the need for ultracentrifugation or sucrose gradient fractionation. The kit contains sufficient reagents for 50 isolation procedures, yielding microsomes from roughly 25 grams of tissue or cultured cells.