Simple and unique purification by size-exclusion chromatography for an oligomeric enzyme,rat liver cytosolic acetyl-coenzyme A hydrolase

An overview of the purification of an oligomeric enzyme, an extramitochondrial acetyl-coenzyme A hydrolase from rat liver, is presented. The enzyme has been purified to homogeneity using two successive size-exclusion chromatography runs, first for the monomeric and second for the oligomeric form of the enzyme. The sequential gel-filtration steps efficiently removed the contaminants of any molecular size, first of different size from that of the monomeric form of the enzyme (K(av)=0.47 on Superdex 200) and second of different size from that of the oligomeric form (K(av)=0.33), allowing us to purify the enzyme in high purity. This strategy provides an excellent model for purifying many other oligomeric proteins including key enzymes or allosteric enzymes regulating metabolism.