Characterization of immunoglobulin adsorption on dextran-grafted hydrophobic charge-induction resins: Cross-effects of ligand density and pH/salt concentration

• Dextran-grafted HCIC resins showed typical pH-dependent and salt-tolerant characteristics.
• The mechanism of the cross-effects of ligand density and pH/salt concentration on IgG adsorption was discussed.
• Higher ligand density indicated higher adsorption capacity and uptake rate and less salt effect.
• Higher ligand density showed better dynamic binding performance for hIgG adsorption.

Hydrophobic charge-induction chromatography (HCIC) is a promising technology for antibody purification. New HCIC resins MMI-B-XL with dextran-grafted agarose gel as the matrix and 2-mercapto-1-methyl-imidazole (MMI) as the functional ligand were prepared with different ligand densities. The adsorption behaviors (static adsorption equilibrium and adsorption kinetics) of human immunoglobulin G (hIgG) on series of MMI-B-XL resins at varying pHs and salt concentrations were investigated. The cross-effects of solid phase property (ligand density) and liquid phase conditions (pH and salt concentration) were focused. The results showed that the new resins had typical pH-dependent and salt-tolerant characteristics for hIgG adsorption, but differences were found for the resins with different ligand densities. For MMI-B-XL resins with higher ligand density, an obvious higher saturated adsorption capacity (Qm) and effective pore diffusivity (De) could be obtained, which were less affected at pH 7.0∼8.9 but dropped drastically at pH 5.0. Salt addition had less influence on protein adsorption onto MMI-B-XL with higher ligand density. Qm and De both reached minimum values at 0.2 mol/L NaCl for all MMI-B-XL resins tested. The results of dynamic binding in the column demonstrated that MMI-B-XL with higher ligand density had better performance for hIgG adsorption, especially under high linear velocities. The mechanism of the cross-effects of ligand density and pH/salt concentration on IgG adsorption was discussed, which provides new insights into protein adsorption and mass transport for dextran-grafted HCIC resins.