Affinity chromatography of fibroblast growth factors on coated silica supports grafted with heparin

Dextran-coated silica beads are excellent supports for affinity chromatography of proteins. They can be easily grafted using conventional coupling methods with different active ligands, such as heparin. Fibroblast growth factors develop specific interactions with heparin through well-defined amino acids sequences. The heparin-dextran coated silica phases exhibit an affinity for these growth factors. Under our experimental conditions, the basic form can be absorbed on the solid support at a moderate salt concentration (0.5 M sodium chloride) and can be selectively desorbed by increasing the ionic strength of the eluent. The purification performances of such phases are compared to those obtained on the heparin grafted soft gels. Because of their mechanical properties, the dextran-coated silica supports were also used in high-performance affinity chromatography to purify fibroblast growth factors from a bovine brain crude extract.