Comparative study of thiophilic functionalised matrices for polyclonal F(ab′)2 purification

Thiophilic adsorbents have been developed using divinyl sulfone or epoxy activated Streamline™ quartz base matrix. Their capacity and selectivity for binding polyclonal F(ab′)2 fragments generated by whole serum proteolysis was tested. Except for epoxy activated guanidine, all the adsorbents displayed high selectivity for F(ab′)2 with dynamic binding capacities ranging from 3 to 10 mg/ml of adsorbent. Thiol immobilised ligands adsorbed more F(ab′)2 and the recovery was equal to or more than that from amino immobilised ligands. All adsorbents showed good selectivity for IgG and the dynamic binding capacities were better than for F(ab′)2.