Polyglycidyl methacrylate based immunoaffinity cryogels for insulin adsorption

Immunoaffinity chromatography (IAC) is a kind of bioaffinity chromatography which used antibodies or antibody-related molecules as the stationary phase. IAC is used by many applications for analytical, clinical and diagnostic purposes, particularly preferring in analytical purposes on one-step separation and purification of target compounds. Moreover, immunoaffinity chromatography is used in antibody enrichment and separation of cells. IAC columns are usually applied in the antibody experiments due to powerful and selective binding of antibodies and/or their target antigens. Antigen or antibody molecules could be immobilized to the solid support. Therefore, target antibody or cell is purified. Specific bioligands can be immobilized directly on glycidyl based polymeric material with simple acid-base catalyst. In this study, polyglycidyl methacrylate based therefore cryogels were prepared and anti-insulin antibodies were immobilized on porous surface of cryogels. Swelling test, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were conducted to characterize cryogels developed. To optimize separation conditions, effects of pH, initial insulin concentration, flow rate, salt concentration, contact time and temperature on insulin adsorption capacity were examined. The results indicated that the immunoaffinity cryogel developed here could be classified as good alternative with prominent properties such as high reusability and cost-friendly adsorbent and would be one of the primary reports for immunoaffinity purification of insulin molecules in not only lab-scale but also for industrial purposes.