CONTINUOUS SEPARATION OF PROTEINS BY HYDROPHILIC POLYMER SHIELDED MULTICHANNEL FLOW ELECTROPHORESIS

Continuous separation of protein mixtures by multichannel flow electro phoresis (MFE) was carried out in a 5-compartment electrolyzer partiti oned by membranes. Polyvinyl alcohol(PVA), polyethylene glycol 4000(PE G 4000) and polyvinylpyrrolidene K30(PVP K30) were applied to the MFE as shielding polymers to prevent protein adsorption on the polyethersu lfone microfiltration membrane, which was used to space the central co mpartment and the elution compartments, during the electrophoresis pro cess. The effects of polymer concentration on protein transmembrane fl ux were examined. It was found that PVA, PEG 4000 and PVP K30 greatly reduced protein adsorpton on the membrane surface. Continuous separati ons of bovine serum albumin(BSA) and hemoglobin(HBB) mixture in the pr esence of PEG 4000 yielded 26.6mg BSA 40.4mg HBB per hour. These resul ts have shown a high potential of scaling up MFE for large scale separ ation and purification of biomolecules.