Each of the limestone columns is cut from an Indiana quarry and made of five 2200 pound sections reinforced by steel rods and plates.
In the laboratory, the bases of the columns were cut to give the desired soil column length (42 cm).
PCR fragments were purified directly via spin columns (PEQLAB, Germany) or were cut from preparative agarose gels (1%) using the gel extraction kit (QIAGEN, Germany).
The IR spectrum was measured: (a) directly from the 2 mm columns (in the case of unused UHMWPE liners) or (b) from 200μm thin cross-sections, which were cut from the columns by a sledge microtome (in the case of explanted UHMWPE liners, listed in Table 1).
Parasagittal serial sections were cut from vertebral columns by using a Microm HM 355S (Thermo Fisher scientific Inc., PA, USA) and mounted on pre-coated slides (0.01% Poly-L-lysine (Sigma) and 2% polyvinyl acetate glue (Casco, Arnheim, Germany)).
In the second step, perpendicular columns (2 mm × 2 mm × liner thickness) were cut from the plates.
After fractionation on a 1% agarose gel, the DNA bands corresponding to 236 bps were cut from the gel, isolated using GenElute Spin columns (Supelco), and ethanol-precipitated.
