CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS OF RECOMBINANT PROTEINS

Many naturally occurring proteins which are used therapeutically have been cloned and expressed in large quantities in bacterial, yeast or m ammalian systems. Purification of these proteins by column chromatogra phy generates high purity products with low levels of host protein con taminants. However, isoforms of the desired protein may be present at variable concentrations. Analysis of these variant forms has been enha nced by the utilisation of capillary electrophoresis (CE), a highly ef ficient, widely applicable technique which is increasingly used in the field of biotechnology. The role of CE in the analysis of recombinant proteins is reviewed with respect to microcharacterisation, compariso n of natural and recombinant proteins, separation of mutant or variant forms and analysis of glycoforms. Examples of these applications are described and illustrated with analysis of recombinant human albumin. The rapid development of CE, further enhancing its versatility, and it s use with complementary analytical techniques is also discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.