Objective: To investigate the effect of probe purity on the reutilization of gene chips.
Methods: Purified and unpurified probes were respectively hybridized with the gene chip and after being scanned with Scanarry lite, a laser scanning device, the gene chip was treated with stripping solution to wash off the probes. After another round of scanning under the same condition to obtain the images, the gene chip was recycled for another hybridization.
Results: Hybridization of unpurified probes resulted in high background noise and obscure positive signals, which were present even after wash with stripping solution for 4 times. Hybridization using purified probes, in contrast, presented low background noise that was completely eliminated after the gene chip was washed twice before it was used again.
Conclusion: The purity of probes is of great importance to the recycling of the gene chips, and hybridization with unpurified probes renders the chips impossible for reutilization.