Purification of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) for structural and functional studies

High-scale purification methods are required for several protein studies such as crystallography, mass spectrometry, circular dichroism, and function. Here we describe a purification method for PAP based on anion exchange, L-(+)-tartrate affinity, and gel filtration chromatographies. Acid phosphatase activity and protein concentration were measured for each purification step, and to collect the fractions with the highest acid phosphatase activity the p-nitrophenyl phosphate method was used. The purified protein obtained by the procedure described here was used for the determination of the first reported three-dimensional structure of prostatic acid phosphatase.