Process development in affinity separation of glycoconjugates with lectins as ligands.

Process development for affinity separation is a crucial prerequisite for a successful biospecific isolation of biological active substances like glycoconjugates or enzymes. The functionalization of polymer and silica based adsorbents and their influence on the adsorption behaviour of the modified adsorbents are presented. Improvement of the immobilization conditions for different lectins lead to a stable binding of more than 90% within 4 h of ligands applied to the immobilization solution.

One-step affinity purification of fetuin from fetal bovine serum.

Fetuin is a plasma glycoprotein widely distributed in mammals. It has been used as a model protein for structural analyses and investigations into the biological properties of glycoproteins. A convenient one-step procedure for biospecific isolation of fetuin from fetal bovine serum was developed on the basis of wheatgerm agglutinin (WGA) affinity separation.