Application

Dextran sulfate is routinely used for the selective precipitation of lipoproteins, probe hybridization membrane-immobilized DNA, the release of DNA from DNA-histone complexes, and the inhibition of RNA binding to ribosomes.

Dextran sulfate is used as a diluent in in situ hybridization experiments to increase hybridization of probes to target sequences in tissues.

General description

Dextran is a polymer of anhydroglucose. It is composed of approximately 95% alpha-D-(166) linkages. The remaining (163) linkages account for the branching of dextran.