Biotechnology Letters, Vol.33, No.5, 929-936, 2011
Simplified purification of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG)--an example of the use of magnetic microsorbents for the isolation of glycoproteins from serum
Classical purification of the glycoprotein equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) from serum includes pH fractionation with metaphosphoric acid, two ethanol precipitation steps as well as dialysis followed by fixed-bed chromatography. A simplified process requiring only 1/3 of the solvent and improving the yield from 53 to 65% has been developed. The process comprises an ultra-/diafiltration step after the first ethanol precipitation, directly followed by an adsorption/desorption procedure based on magnetic microadsorbents with N,N-diethyl-ammonium functionalization. The process reaches an overall purification factor of eCG of more than 1800 and an average product activity of 1300 IUELISA/mg. After adapting the parameters of the fractionation and the type of magnetic microadsorbents, the new concept is likely to be transferable to other serum proteins.