APPLICATION OF COMPACT POROUS TUBES FOR PREPARATIVE ISOLATION OF CLOTTING FACTOR-VIII FROM HUMAN PLASMA

Membranes as well as compact porous disks are successfully used for fa st analytical separations of biopolymers. So far, technical difficulti es have prevented the proper scaling-up of the processes and the use o f membranes and compact disks for preparative separations in a large s cale. In this paper, the use of a compact porous tube for fast prepara tive separations of proteins is shown as a possible solution to these problems. The units have yielded good results, in terms of performance and speed of separation. The application of compact porous tubes for the preparative isolation of clotting factor VIII from human plasma sh ows that this method can even be used for the separation of very sensi tive biopolymers. As far as yield and purity of the isolated proteins are concerned, the method was comparable to preparative column chromat ography. The period of time required for separation was five times sho rter than with corresponding column chromatographic methods. Compact p orous disks made of the same support material can also be used for in- process analysis in order to control the separation. The quick respons e, which is obtained from these units within 5 to 60 s, allows close m onitoring of the purification process.