Worthington Tissue Dissociation Guide

Dissociating Enzymes: Papain

Papain is a sulfhydryl protease from Carica papaya latex. Papain has wide specificity and it will degrade most protein substrates more extensively than the pancreatic proteases. It also exhibits esterase activity.

With some tissues papain has proved less damaging and more effective than other proteases. Huettner and Baughman (1986) describe a method using papain to obtain high yields of viable, morphologically intact cortical neurons from postnatal rats.

Tissue Tables

The Worthington Tissue Tables provide references useful to researchers interested in tissue dissociation and cell harvesting procedures. The references are organized by Tissue and Species type and linked to PubMed citations. The Cell type, Enzymes, and Medium for each reference is provided.

To search by specific criteria, use the Tissue References Search Tool.

Worthington Tissue Dissociation Guide

Tissue Tables (references, grouped by tissue type and species)