Development and characterization of an immunoaffinity column for the selective extraction of bisphenol A from serum samples

An immunoaffinity column (IAC) was developed by covalently coupling polyclonal antibodies against estrogenic bisphenols to CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. The IAC showed high affinity for bisphenol A, while phenol was barely retained. Proteins in the sample matrix showed little nonspecific adsorption on the column. The best binding solvent for bisphenol A was found to be 0.01 mol l−1 phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and the optimal operating temperature was 4 °C. The bound bisphenol A could be quantitatively recovered by 1 ml of methanol–water (80:20) with an average recovery of 91.8% and a relative standard deviation of 7.1% (n=6). The immunoaffinity column has been successfully used for the isolation and purification of bisphenol A from serum samples.