Supports for liquid-liquid partition chromatography in aqueous two-phase systems: A comparison of LiChrospher and LiParGel

Conformational isomerism of IgG antibodies

The purpose of this study was to determine why apparently homogeneous IgG antibodies were, in some cases, fractionated into at least two components by liquid-liquid partition chromatography (LLPC) in an aqueous two-phase system. Four mouse monoclonal IgG antibodies, two against albumin, one against IgG and one against thyroxine, were shown to adopt different conformational isomeric forms. The four antibodies existed in an equilibrium between two or three conformational forms, the proportion of which could also be estimated by LLPC. Since LLPC detects mainly conformational differences within the antigen-binding sites of IgG antibodies, it could be concluded that the conformational forms differed with respect to their combining sites. Moreover, the isomeric forms of an antibody directed against a protein antigen, formed antigen-antibody complexes with almost identical surface properties. In contrast, complexes with different surface properties were formed when the hapten or hapten conjugated to BSA was bound. Thus, both the conformational isomers could bind antigen, at least when the antigen was a small hapten or a hapten conjugated to a carrier protein. Our results suggest that six out of 57 monoclonal IgG antibodies exist in equilibrium between at least two conformational forms and the biological significance of this isomerism is discussed.

Enzyme conformational alterations detected by partition column chromatography

In this paper, we demonstrate the ability of liquid-liquid partition chromatography (LLPC) to detect conformational alterations occurring in well-characterized enzymes. The conformational changes induced in dehydrogenases such as alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), lactate dehydrogenases (LDH) and malate dehydrogenase (MDH) upon binding of ligand(s) were detectable by LLPC. The ligand-dependent equilibrium between two forms of citrate synthase (CS), glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), hexokinase (HK) and 3-phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) could also be demonstrated. Furthermore, different conformational forms of some of the apoenzymes could also be detected and separated by LLPC. The results obtained here are discussed in relation to those obtained by other methods.

Antigen-binding sites dominate the surface properties of IgG antibodies

A new technique, liquid-liquid partition chromatography in an aqueous polyethylene glycol-dextran two-phase system, was used to detect differences in surface properties of antibodies with different antigen-binding sites. Employing well-characterized monoclonal IgG antibodies and Fab and Fc fragments thereof as well as chimeric IgG antibodies we found a remarkable relationship between structure of the antibody combining site and chromatographic behaviour. The surface properties of the IgG antibodies were dominated by those of its antigen-binding regions. In addition, our results indicated that the constant parts of the IgGs form similar scaffoldings, on to which CDRs of variable shapes and sizes are interspaced and constitute the major dominant differences in exposed surface properties.

A new approach to examine conformational changes occurring upon binding of ligand by biomolecules

Liquid-liquid partition chromatography in an aqueous poly(ethylene glycol)/dextran two-phase system (LLPC) is shown to be a quick and sensitive method for detecting conformational changes occurring upon binding of ligands by biospecific molecules. Two groups of well-characterized proteins, enzymes and monoclonal antibodies, were employed. As an example, LLPC demonstrated that isoforms of lactate dehydrogenase as well as of hexokinase existed in a ligand-dependent equilibrium between two forms and that conformational changes occurred when monoclonal antibodies bound haptens. We also demonstrate that the method could be used to detect and separate subfractions in preparations of unliganded proteins that appeared to be homogeneous when analysed by other techniques.