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Nanophased porous hydroxyapatite beads with particle diameters of 25 microm and 30 microm intended for use in protein and biomolecule separation are characterized with respect to chromatographic characteristics. These particles were produced from a hydroxyapatite gel by a controlled spray process yielding microspheres containing hydroxyapatite nanocrystals. By calcification of the microspheres, nanophased porous hydroxyapatite beads were obtained. As a reference material, ceramic hydroxyapatite Types I and II with a particle diameter of 40 microm was chosen. SEM pictures show that the surface of the nanophased hydroxyapatite is very rough compared to ceramic hydroxyapatite Types I and Type II. The calcium-to-phosphorous ratio of this nanophased hydroxyapatite is 1.6, which is slightly below the theoretical ratio of 1.67 of pure hydroxyapatite. The porosity is greater than 60%. An IgG binding capacity of 60.7 mg/ml for Bio-Rad Type I and 36.0 mg/ml for Type II, 42.0 mg/ml for the nanophased material with 25 microm and 19.7 mg/ml for the nanophased material with 30 microm were observed. The nanophased material with 30 microm had the lowest mass transfer resistancy as indicated by the dependency of the dynamic binding capacity on velocity. It is assumed that the mass transport properties are characterized by a low particle diffusion resistancy or by slight intraparticle convection. The material also showed high selectivity for IgG. When culture supernatant with 5% FCS containing 3 mg/ml was loaded, pure IgG could be eluted by linear gradient with increasing sodium phosphate concentration. This nanophased material comprises a novel stationary phase for IgG separation.

Diagnosis of type I allergy is based on anamnesis, provocation testing, and serological determination of total and specific IgE. Currently, in vivo and in vitro diagnostic tests employ allergen extracts prepared from various allergen sources (e.g., pollen, mites, animal dander, moulds, foods, venoms, etc.). The application of recombinant DNA technology to the field of allergen characterization has allowed to reveal the molecular nature of the most common allergens. To date a continuously increasing number of allergen sequences has become available and panels of recombinant allergens-assembling the epitope complexity of natural allergens sources-can be produced. The use of recombinant allergens instead of crude, natural extracts for allergy diagnosis allows us to determine the individual IgE reactivity profile of each patient. To enable a comprehensive analysis of the patient's IgE binding pattern to a large number of individual allergens, a new type of serological test is required. In this paper, we applied microarray technology to create a multi-allergen test system, based on microarrayed recombinant allergens.

Hydrophobic interaction chromatography media suited for large scale separations were compared regarding dynamic binding capacity, recovery and mass transfer properties. In all cases, pore diffusion was the rate limiting step. Reduced heights equivalent to a theoretical plate for bovine serum albumin derived from breakthrough curves at reduced velocities between 60 and 1500 ranged from 10 to 700. Pore diffusion coefficients were derived from pulse response experiments for the model proteins alpha-lactalbumin, lysozyme, beta-lactoglobulin, bovine serum albumin and immunoglobulin G. Diffusivity of lysozyme did not follow the trend of decreasing diffusivity with increasing molecular mass, as observed for the rest of the proteins. In general, mass transfer coefficients were smaller compared to ion-exchange chromatography. Dynamic binding capacities for the model protein bovine serum albumin varied within a broad range. However, sorbents based on polymethacrylate showed a lower dynamic capacity than media based on Sepharose. Some sorbents could be clustered regarding binding capacity affected by salt. These sorbents exhibited a disproportional increase of binding capacity with increasing ammonium sulfate concentration. Recovery of proteins above 75% could be observed for all sorbents. Several sorbents showed a recovery close to 100%.

Currently, the selection of a hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) sorbent for protein separation purposes is entirely based on empirical means. An attempt was made to characterize different HIC sorbents from various manufacturers. The selectivity was determined by isocratic pulse experiments of a set of reference proteins and an algorithm was developed to classify the sorbents according to their selectivity and hydrophobicity. The obtained semi-quantitative parameters take into account the dependence of salt on adsorption. The sorbent characteristics evaluated with the model proteins were compared to the separation of a real feedstock. A good agreement was achieved between the developed evaluation procedure and the separation behaviour of the real feed stock.