Affinity purification of plasma proteins: characterization of six affinity matrices and their application for the isolation of human factor VIII.

For the purification of coagulation factor VIII, (1,1'-carbonyl-diimidazole [CDI]-activated) Sepharose CL-4B was functionalized with two aminoalkyl and four aminoalkyl-carbamylalkyl ligand-spacer combinations. The affinity matrices were contacted with human plasma. All affinity matrices showed complete adsorption of factor VIII (greater than 90%) and three aminoalkyl-carbamylalkyl Sepharoses gave factor-VIII recoveries of 50-65% and a factor-VIII preparation with a specific activity of 1-2 U factor VIII/mg of protein. Furthermore, no fibrinogen, immunoglobulin G and albumin could be detected in the isolated factor VIII. Optimal results were obtained using the di-methyl-aminopropyl-carbamyl-pentyl-Sepharose affinity matrix.

Large-scale purification of factor VIII by affinity chromatography: optimization of process parameters.

The optimization of a new process for the extraction of human coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) from plasma with the tailor-made affinity matrix dimethylamino-propylcarbamylpentyl-Sepharose CL-4B (C3-C5 matrix) is described. First, plasma is applied to DEAE-Sephadex A-50 anion exchanger in order to separate a number of proteins, including coagulation factors II, IX and X (prothrombin complex), from FVIII. Subsequently, the unbound fraction of the ion exchanger, containing FVIII, is contacted with the C3-C5 affinity matrix. Optimization of the FVIII affinity chromatographic procedure is accomplished in terms of the ligand density of the matrix, adsorption mode (batch-wise versus column-wise adsorption and matrix to plasma ratio), and conditions of pH and conductivity to be applied on washing and desorption. In scale-up experiments, by processing 20 l of plasma, the recovery (340 U VIII:C/kg plasma) and the specific activity (s.a.) (1.2 U VIII:C/mg protein) are better than those obtained by cryoprecipitation (recovery 300 U VIII:C/kg plasma, s.a. 0.3 U VIII:C/mg protein). The newly developed process using the specially designed C3-C5 affinity matrix has potential application in the process-scale purification of FVIII.