Purification of urokinase by combined cation exchanger and affinity chromatographic cartridges

Para-aminobenzamidine linked regenerated cellulose membranes for plasminogen activator purification: effect of spacer arm length and ligand density

Despite membrane-based separations offering superior alternative to packed bed chromatographic processes, there has been a substantial lacuna in their actual application to separation processes. One of the major reasons behind this is the lack of availability of appropriately modified or end-group modifiable membranes. In this paper, an affinity membrane was developed using a commercially available serine protease inhibitor, para-aminobenzamidine (pABA). The membrane modification was optimized for protein binding capacity by varying: (i) the length of the spacer arm (SA; 5-atoms, 7-atoms, and 14-atoms) linking the ligand to membrane surface; (ii) the affinity ligand (pABA) density on membrane surface (5-25nmol/cm(2)). Resulting membranes were tested for their ability to bind plasminogen activators (PAs) from mono- and multi-component systems in batch mode. The membrane containing pABA linked through 7-atoms SA but similar ligand density as in the case of 5- or 14-atoms long SA was found to bind up to 1.6-times higher amounts of PA per nmoles of immobilized ligand from conditioned HeLa cell culture media. However, membranes with similar ligand densities but different lengths of SA, showed comparable binding capacities in mono-component system. In addition, the length of SA did not affect the selectivity of the ligand for PA. A clear inverse linear correlation was observed between ligand density and binding capacity until the point of PA binding optima was reached (11±1.0nmol/cm(2)) in mono- and multi-component systems for 7- as well as 14-atoms SA. Up to 200-fold purification was achieved in a single step separation of PA from HeLa conditioned media using these affinity membranes. The issues of ligand leaching and reuse of the membranes were also investigated. An extensive regeneration procedure allowed the preservation of approximately 95% of the PA binding capacity of the membranes even after five cycles of use.

Cellulose and Glass Fiber Affinity Membranes for the Chromatographic Separation of Biomolecules

Macroporous cellulose and glass membranes were prepared from filter paper and glass fiber filter, respectively. To enhance their stability, the cellulose membranes were crosslinked with epichlorohydrin, and the glass membranes were crosslinked with glutaraldehyde or organic bifunctional silanes. Several pathways for the modification, activation, and ligand immobilization were used and compared. For cellulose membranes, the diazotization method provided the best results, whereas the glutaraldehyde method provided the best performance for glass membranes, regarding both their stability and ligand immobilization capacity. The characterization of the membranes was made by using a triazine dye, bovine serum albumin, and trypsin as test ligands. The membrane morphologies and the uniformities of ligand distribution across the membrane cartridges were investigated. Numerous affinity ligands were immobilized onto the membranes, and the prepared affinity membranes have been used to separate or purify concanavalin A, peroxidase, protease inhibitors, globulin, fibronectin, and other biomolecules.

Urokinase separation from cell culture broth of a human kidney cell line

A single step ion-exchange chromatography on a sulfo-propyl (SP)- Sepharose column was performed to separate both the high molecular weight (HMW)- and low molecular weight (LMW)- forms of enzymatically active urokinase type plasminogen activator from human kidney (HT1080) cell culture media. The level of urokinase secreted by the cell line reached to about 145 Plough units/ml culture broth within 48 h of cultivation. The conditioned cell culture media was applied directly to the column without any prior concentration steps. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the column eluates in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate showed that the cell line secretes three forms of two-chain high molecular weight (HMW) urokinase of molecular weights (M(r)) 64,000, 60,900 and 55,000. In addition, two low molecular weight (LMW) forms of M(r) 22,000 and 20,000; proteolytic cleavage products of HMW, were also found. The HMW and LMW forms had intrinsic plasminogen dependent proteolytic activity as judged by zymographic analysis. The specific activity of the pooled peak fractions increased (approximately 93-fold) to values as high as 1481 Plough units/ mg protein. Both HMW as well as LMW forms were obtained in significantly high yields.

Production and purification of urokinase: A comprehensive review

An increased emphasis on prevention of fatalities due to thrombovascular disorders is broadening opportunities for several cardiovascular agents, especially plasminogen activators, for preventing strokes and heart attacks. Hence, urokinase, as one of the most potent plasminogen activators is attracting a great deal of attention. Developments in cell lines and bioprocess technology have made it possible to produce urokinase from in vitro cell culture. Attempts are now underway to enhance urokinase production from cell culture through media manipulation, bioreactor cultivation, and innovative purification techniques. Downstream processing also poses an intricate problem due to the complexity of cell culture extracts, susceptibility of urokinase to autocatalytic and proteolytic degradation and due to the presence of plasminogen activator inhibitors in the culture media. Hence, enhancing cellular productivity and downstream product recovery continue to be major challenges as discussed in this review. Furthermore, an approach for integrated upstream and downstream processing is needed to develop an economically viable technology. In the present review the emerging trends in urokinase production and purification have been discussed in detail.

Exploiting immobilized metal affinity membranes for the isolation or purification of therapeutically relevant species

Increasing reports regarding the isolation or purification of biospecies for therapeutic purpose using the immobilized metal affinity chromatography have been presented in recent years. At the same time, membrane chromatography technique has also gained more and more attention for their advantage in speeding the separation process. The immobilized metal affinity membrane technique developed by combining these two techniques may provide an alternative potential tool for separating the therapeutically relevant biospecies. In this review paper, the features of the immobilized metal affinity membranes are discussed and concentrated on three subtopics: membrane matrices, immobilized metal affinity method, and membrane module designs. Several examples of practically applying the immobilized metal affinity membranes on the purification of potential therapeutics reported in the literature are subsequently presented. Lastly, this review also provides an overall evaluation on the possible advantages and problems existing in this technique to point out opportunities and further improvements for more applied development of the immobilized metal affinity membranes.

Alkaline treatment of the cellulose fiber affecting membrane column behaviour for high-performance immunoaffinity chromatography

The original cellulose fibers and those treated by alkaline solution were both used to prepare the acrylic membranes. The two kinds of membranes were packed into the columns for high-performance immunoaffinity chromatography by the immobilization of protein A on them. It was observed that the alkaline treatment of the cellulose fiber decreased the pressure resistance of the membrane to the mobile phases and greatly increased the accessible volume to the proteins, but affected the adsorption capacity of human IgG on the protein A membrane columns less. There is little difference between those two kinds of membranes on the adsorption capacities of HIgG, which means that the alkaline treatment of the cellulose fiber only significantly changes the void volume inter-membrane, and the porosity and surface area of membrane less. Alkaline treatment of the cellulose fiber reduced the membrane-column efficiency significantly. Some typical examples for the immunoaffinity analysis of IgG from human and dog plasma on the protein A membrane columns are illustrated.

Immobilized iminodiacetic acid (IDA)-type Cu2+ -chelating membrane affinity chromatography for purification of bovine liver catalase

A metal ion chelating membrane medium based on iminodiacetate-substituted modified short cotton cellulose was examined for the purification of bovine liver catalase (BLC). The effect of buffer pH, chelator surface density, initial concentration of crude enzyme and flow rate on BLC binding efficiency to the copper ion chelating membrane adsorbent were examined. Under the chromatographic conditions chosen, 67.7% recovery of BLC was attained with an overall 4.2-fold increase in specific activity in a single step. After performance of BLC purification, the chelating membrane adsorbent can be easily regenerated by imidazole or EDTA buffer with higher reviving effectiveness with the latter.

Characterization and application of new macroporous membrane ion exchangers

A new ready-to-use unit for high-performance membrane chromatography has been characterized. Its dynamic capacity, resolving power and protein recovery were measured at different flow-rates. The binding capacity was 0.5-2 mg/cm2 with a 95% recovery at 10 ml/min irrespective of the protein concentration up to 10 mg/ml. For very-high flow-rates (50 and 100 ml/min) the recovery was 90% and 70%. At these flow-rates, the maximum back-pressure was about 0.1 MPa and was independent of the filtration area. By increasing the filtration area, a proportional capacity increase was obtained, indicating an easy scale-up. High flow-rates had only a slight effect on resolution. This new adsorber was able to purify IgM from supernatant of cell culture of a human hybridoma in less than 8 min with a high degree of purity (95%).

Surface-modified membranes as a matrix for protein purification

Recently introduced membrane-based chromatographic supports for protein separation are available either with a coupled ligand, e.g., protein A, protein G or ion-exchange groups, or as activated matrices for coupling a desired ligand. The coupling conditions for protein A and immunoglobulin G to an epoxy-activated membrane were determined. The performance of the prepared affinity membranes was investigated using pure rabbit immunoglobulin G and protein A as a model system. For practical application monoclonal antibodies from cell culture supernatant were purified with a prepared protein A membrane and for comparison with a sulphonic acid ion exchange membrane.