Membranes are mixed with radioactive ligand and unlabeled competitor (see Figures 1 and 2 for concentrations tested) in binding buffer in a nonbinding 96-well plate, and incubated for 1-2 h. Prior to filtration, a GF/C 96-well filter plate is coated with 0.33% polyethyleneimine for 30 min, then washed with 50mM HEPES, pH 7.4, 0.5% BSA. Binding reaction is transferred to the filter plate, and washed 3 times (1 mL per well per wash) with Wash Buffer. The plate is dried and counted. Binding buffer: 50 mM Hepes, pH 7.4, 5 mM MgCl2, 1 mM CaCl2, 0.2% BSA, filtered and stored at 4°C Radioligand: [125I] PACAP27 (Perkin Elmer # NEX294) Wash Buffer: 50 mM Hepes, pH 7.4, 500mM NaCl , 0.1% BSA, filtered and stored at 4°C.
One package contains enough membranes for at least 200 assays (units), where an unit is the amount of membrane that will yield greater than 20-fold signal:background with 125I-labeled PACAP27 at 0.75 nM.