Determination of diffusion coefficients of proteins in beaded agarose by gel filtration.

A method for determining approximately the coefficient of diffusion of solute molecules in beaded gels, based on the analysis of breakthrough curves obtained in gel filtration, is described. This is applied to the diffusion of porcine serum proteins, gamma-globulin and fibrinogen in Sepharose CL-4B. The diffusion coefficients at 20 degrees C are 11.2 and 3.6 microns 2/s, respectively, about half those calculated from the partition coefficients using published equations.