APPLICATION OF BIOAFFINITY TECHNOLOGY IN THERAPEUTIC EXTRACORPOREAL PLASMAPHERESIS AND LARGE-SCALE FRACTIONATION OF HUMAN PLASMA

This paper describes the increasingly unique and powerful role that af finity chromatography is occupying both as a tool for the treatment of extracorporeal plasma exchange (to discard biological compounds with noxious metabolic or immunologic effects in patients) and as a purific ation tool in the production of therapeutic plasma protein derivatives . Management of both applications requires careful monitoring of the p arameters applied to the plasma material, to avoid immunological stimu lation or activation of the coagulation cascade. Examples of direct cu rrent applications of affinity ligands in therapeutic removal and indu strial production of plasma compounds are presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.