Biochemistry without oxygen

Published procedures for experimentation under anoxic conditions generally involve specialized apparatus that hinders the easy manipulation of experimental samples. We describe here some procedures that rapidly remove oxygen from experimental solutions, maintain anoxia with simple equipment for long periods of time, and do not interfere with normal sample addition and removal, spectrometric measurements, chromatographic manipulations, and the like. Anoxia can be achieved and maintained by the use of an enzyme system (glucose oxidase, glucose, catalase), or an inorganic oxygen-reducing system (ferrous pyrophosphate), or dithionite. Physical isolation of experimental samples from atmospheric oxygen can be maintained by continuous flushing with treated argon gas and/or by an overlay of heavy mineral oil.