Oscillatory transverse electric field enhances mass transfer and protein capacity in ion-exchange electrochromatography

Approaches to high-performance preparative chromatography of proteins

Preparative liquid chromatography is widely used for the purification of chemical and biological substances. Different from high-performance liquid chromatography for the analysis of many different components at minimized sample loading, high-performance preparative chromatography is of much larger scale and should be of high resolution and high capacity at high operation speed and low to moderate pressure drop. There are various approaches to this end. For biochemical engineers, the traditional way is to model and optimize a purification process to make it exert its maximum capability. For high-performance separations, however, we need to improve chromatographic technology itself. We herein discuss four approaches in this review, mainly based on the recent studies in our group. The first is the development of high-performance matrices, because packing material is the central component of chromatography. Progress in the fabrication of superporous materials in both beaded and monolithic forms are reviewed. The second topic is the discovery and design of affinity ligands for proteins. In most chromatographic methods, proteins are separated based on their interactions with the ligands attached to the surface of porous media. A target-specific ligand can offer selective purification of desired proteins. Third, electrochromatography is discussed. An electric field applied to a chromatographic column can induce additional separation mechanisms besides chromatography, and result in electrokinetic transport of protein molecules and/or the fluid inside pores, thus leading to high-performance separations. Finally, expanded-bed adsorption is described for process integration to reduce separation steps and process time.

High-capacity purification of hen egg-white proteins by ion-exchange electrochromatography with an oscillatory transverse electric field

The ion-exchange electrochromatography with an oscillatory electric field perpendicular to the mobile-phase flow driven by pressure (pIEEC) was used to separate hen egg-white (HEW) proteins. The results were compared with those of normal ion-exchange chromatography (IEC). The column was designed as three-compartment rectangular column of 2-mL with dimensions (length x width x depth) of 40 x 10 x 5 mm(3) and the electric field was applied across the direction of column width. Q Sepharose FF was packed into the central compartment as the chromatographic bed. It was confirmed that the dynamic binding capacity (DBC) of different proteins (ovotransferrin and ovalbumin) in the HEW solution increased 2.3 times when an oscillatory electric current of 30 mA at 1/20 Hz was applied in the transverse column direction. Then, the HEW proteins were separated by the pIEEC at loading amounts 2.3-fold higher than those by the IEC. When the feedstock of about one-third of the DBC was applied to the columns (i.e., 7 mL for the pIEEC and 3 mL for the IEC), similar separation efficiencies of the two chromatographic modes were achieved. Both the recovery yield and purity reached 73% to over 90%. The results indicate that the pIEEC is promising for high-capacity purification of proteins.