Evidence of the importance of pH and salt concentration on column chromatography with Sepharose gel filtration in separation of proteins.

Gel filtration chromatography with Sepharose agarose gel has been widely applied in the purification of enzymes because of its capability to separate macromolecules according to molecular size. Although a wide range of pH and salt concentrations have been suggested for its use, we have found that the selectivity, or efficiency, of separation is strongly affected by the pH and salt concentrations actually used. Separation is best at neutral pH with low salt concentrations. Increasing the molarity of the buffer or salt content (such as ammonium sulfate) in the protein sample will either broaden protein peaks resulting in poor separation or displace the peaks to a position of much lower apparent hydrodynamic volume. Rabbit plasma monoamine oxidase (MAO), a protein of 150,000 MW, when combined with 1.3 m (NH₄)₂SO₄ at pH 5.4, was found to be retained in Sepharose 6B column until the very end and elute with ammonium sulfate molecules. This behavior was attributed to severe morphological changes on the gel surface at acidic pH leading to a loss of selectivity. Evidence for this interpretation is provided by parallel experiments with Sephadex columns under identical conditions which excludes the possibility of dissociation of MAO into subunits and by scanning electron microscopy which demonstrates the change of surface morphology of the gel. The necesslty of a careful selection of optimum conditions for Sepharose gel chromatographic separation is therefore suggested.