2-mercaptoethanol

Other denaturing chemicals such as 2-mercaptoethanol and sarcosine may also be used.

Activity can be recovered by treatment with 2-mercaptoethanol, although not with glutathione.

Break any disulfide bridges in the protein with a reducing agent like 2-mercaptoethanol.

Some proteins can be denatured by 2-mercaptoethanol via its ability to cleave disulfide bonds:

This reduction of disulfide bonds can be accomplished by treatment with 2-mercaptoethanol, dithiothreitol, or tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine.

These cells were cultured in RPMI medium supplemented with 10% FCS, 2 mM L-glutamine, and 0.05 mM 2-mercaptoethanol without antibiotic/antimycotic.

The standard protocol may require modifications depending on the sample enzyme; for instance, D. melanogaster digestive glycosidases generally survive reducing conditions (i.e. the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol or DTT), and to an extent, heating.