Two-step chromatographic procedure for purification of basic fibroblast growth factor from recombinant Escherichia coli and characterization of the equilibrium parameters of adsorption.

A two-step chromatographic procedure for purification of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) from high-cell-density cultures of recombinant E. coli is described. Heparin-Sepharose as a material which shows a high affinity to endothelial growth factors was used as sorbent for purification of bFGF from the soluble cell fraction. A one-step affinity chromatographic procedure resulted in very pure bFGF. However, this one-step affinity isolation of bFGF caused the loss of around 60% of the recombinant protein. A combination of ion-exchange chromatography with heparin-Sepharose affinity chromatography was favored for bFGF purification. A first cation-exchange chromatographic step resulted in a solution of bFGF with a purity of around 70%. The weak cation exchanger CM Sepharose C50 was preferred in comparison to the strong cation exchanger S-Sepharose because of the higher recovery of bFGF. With the ion-exchange chromatographic step prior to the heparin-Sepharose affinity chromatography, the total yield of recovery of bFGF increased to 56% compared to 40% using the one-step purification procedure with heparin-Sepharose. To characterize the equilibrium parameters of adsorption, batch experiments for the calculation of maximum capacities and dissociation constants for CM-Sepharose C50 and heparin-Sepharose were carried out. The equilibrium experiments revealed that adsorption of bFGF to the ion-exchange sorbent followed single-site interaction according to the Langmuir model of adsorption. The adsorption of bFGF to heparin-Sepharose was described by a double Langmuir approach of two independent binding sites with different maximum capacities and dissociation constants. The purified bFGF showed a high biological activity and circular dichroic spectra of a proper folded molecule. The analysis of the N-terminal amino acid sequence revealed a mixture of two fractions of bFGF, which both are characterized by the cleavage of the first amino acid methionine. In addition, half of the bFGF molecules lacked the second amino acid alanine.