PURIFICATION OF A POLYELECTROLYTE SAMPLE FROM COMPLEX-FORMING CHARGEDTRACE IMPURITIES BY CONTINUOUS CONVECTIVE ELECTROPHORESIS - DEPYROGENIZATION OF HUMAN ALBUMIN

Using the separation of endotoxin (pyrogens) from albumin as an exampl e, it has been verified that continuous convective electrophoresis can be applied for the purification of a polyelectrolyte sample from comp lex-forming charged impurities. In a one-stage process, 40% of endotox in-contaminated albumin could be depyrogenized (<1 mug/L). A multistag e process would further increase the yield of depyrogenized albumin, b ut a complete recovery of depyrogenized albumin is not possible becaus e endotoxins tend to form complexes with albumin. However, the present ed method demonstrates a simple way to purify a considerable amount of contaminated albumin without introducing, e.g., detergents or complex inactivation reagents.