Enrichment behavior of immunoglobulin by foam fractionation using response surface methodology

Traditional immunoglobulin enrichment methods, based mostly on chromatographic processes, generally involve costly purification and lead to expensive final products. As such, there is a definite need to develop techniques capable of increasing capacity and decreasing total costs. Foam fractionation represents a promising method for separation and concentration of biochemicals. It is simple, easily scalable, inexpensive and environmentally friendly. Foam fractionation thus represents an alternative to the traditional methods used for immunoglobulin enrichment. However, little, if any, literature exits documenting the utilization of foam fractionation in the enrichment of immunoglobulins. To establish a model system, the foam fractionation of immunoglobulin was studied with the aid of albumin as a foaming agent. Response surface design experiments examined the effect of various initial concentrations of immunoglobulin, pH values and nitrogen flow rates on the enrichment ratio and recovery in a model system by foam fractionation. The established prediction equations for both the enrichment ratio and immunoglobulin recovery were verified through validation experiments. The predicted responses were an enrichment ratio of 5.5 and recovery of 96% for IgG, while the experimental values were 5.47% and 95.6%, respectively, which match quite well.