[Purification of human thrombin by affinity chromatography for its use in preparations for biological coagulation]

Biological glue is obtained by mixing different specific plasma proteins including a serine protease, thrombin. Surprisingly at present the thrombin used in such a mixture is from equine or bovine origin while all other components are from human. In this paper we described a particular efficient and specific chromatographic method for the purification of human thrombin usable as a serine protease in the preparation of biological glue. A pure and active thrombin is obtained from a plasma fraction after adsorption on benzamidine-Spherodex followed by an elution with non specific (sodium chloride gradient) or biospecific competitors (arginine methylester or benzamidine). The obtained thrombin with a yield close to 80% and a purification factor close to 160, showed good properties in the replacement of animal thrombin in the condition of biological glue.