Efficient removal of albumin from human serum by monosize dye-affinity beads

Cibacron Blue F3GA was covalently attached onto monosize poly(glycidyl methacrylate) [poly(GMA)] beads for removal of human serum albumin (HSA) from human serum. Monosize poly(GMA) beads, 1.6 μm in diameter, were produced by dispersion polymerization. Cibacron Blue F3GA loading was 1.73 mol/g. HSA adsorption experiments were performed by stirred-batch adsorption. The non-specific adsorption of HSA was low (0.8 mg/g polymer). Dye attachment onto the monosize beads significantly increased the HSA adsorption (189.8 mg/g). The maximum HSA adsorption was observed at pH 5.0. With an increase of the aqueous phase concentration of sodium chloride, the adsorption capacity decreased drastically. The equilibrium adsorption of HSA significantly decreased with increasing temperature. The elution studies were performed by adding 0.1 M Tris/HCl buffer containing 0.5 M NaSCN to the HSA solutions in which adsorption equilibria had been reached. The elution results demonstrated that the adsorption of HSA to the adsorbent was reversible. The depletion efficiencies for HSA were above 87% for all studied concentrations. To test the efficiency of HSA removal from human serum, proteins in the serum and eluted portion were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Eluted proteins include mainly albumin, and a small number of nonalbumin proteins such as apo-lipoprotein A1, sero-transferrin, haptoglobulin and α1-antitrypsin were bound by the dye-affinity beads. IgA was not identified in eluted fraction.