A novel support for antibody purification: fatty acid attached chitosan beads.

Linoleic acid attached chitosan beads [poly(LA-Ch)] (1.25 microm in diameter) are obtained by the formation of amide linkages between linoleic acid and chitosan. Poly(LA-Ch) beads are characterized by FTIR, TEM, and swelling studies. Poly(LA-Ch) beads are used for the purification of immunoglobulin-G (IgG) from human plasma in a batch system. The maximum IgG adsorption is observed at pH 7.0 for HEPES buffer. IgG adsorption onto the plain chitosan beads is found to be negligible. Adsorption values up to 136.7 mg/g from aqueous solutions are obtained by poly(LA-Ch) beads. IgG adsorption saw an increase as a result of increasing temperature. Higher amounts of IgG are adsorbed from human plasma (up to 390 mg/g) with a purity of 92%. The adsorption phenomena appeared to follow a typical Langmuir isotherm. It is observed that IgG could be repeatedly adsorbed and desorbed without significant loss when we take into account the adsorption amount. It is concluded that the poly(LA-Ch) beads allowed one-step purification of IgG from human plasma.