Purification of human liver glycoprotein sialyltransferase by affinity chromatography

A simple procedure has been developed for purifying solubilized human liver glycoprotein sialyltransferase (EC 2.4.99.1) 16000-fold in 4-5% yield. The procedure involves two centrifugation steps, affinity chromatography of the ultrasupernatant fluid on cytidine diphosphate-hexanolamine-agarose followed by gel filtration on Sephadex G-150. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) indicated that the purified sialyltransferase preparation contains approximately equivalent amounts of three protein bands (with apparent molecular weights of 61000, 63000 and 70000) and is highly purified if not homogeneous.