Purification of human immunoglobulins by sequential precipitation with caprylic acid and ammonium sulphate.

We have tested the usefulness of sequential precipitation with caprylic acid and ammonium sulfate to purify human monoclonal and polyclonal immunoglobulins from sera of 11 patients with monoclonal gammapathy (4 IgG kappa, 2 IgG lambda, 2 IgM kappa, 1 IgA kappa, 2 IgA lambda), four patients with autoimmune diseases and four healthy donors. In terms of purity and activity of Ig as well as execution time and cost, this two-step non-chromatographic procedure is highly efficient for the purification of IgG, IgA and IgM, thus offering several advantages over other methods of purification. Therefore, this procedure may have useful application in the preparation of human Ig for structural studies and therapeutic purposes.