Expanded bed adsorption of human serum albumin from very dense Saccharomyces cerevesiae suspensions on fluoride-modified zirconia.

The adsorption of proteins from high cell density yeast suspensions on mixed-mode fluoride-modified zirconia (FmZr) particles (38 to 75 microm, surface area of 29 m(2)/g and density of 2.8 g/cm(3)) was investigated using human serum albumin (HSA) added to Saccharomyces cerevesiae as the model expression host. Because of the high density of the porous zirconia particles, HSA (4 mg/mL) can be adsorbed from a 100 g dry cell weight (DCW)/L yeast suspension in a threefold-expanded bed of FmZr. The expanded bed adsorption of any protein from a suspension containing >50 g DCW/L cells has not been previously reported. The FmZr bed expansion characteristics were well represented by the Richardson-Zaki correlation with a particle terminal velocity of 3.1 mm/s and a bed expansion index of 5.4. Expanded bed hydrodynamics were investigated as a function of bed expansion using residence time distribution studies with sodium nitrite as the tracer. The adsorption of HSA on FmZr exhibited features of multicomponent adsorption due to the presence of dimers. The protein binding capacity at 5% breakthrough decreased from 22 mg HSA/mL settled bed void volume for 20 g DCW/L yeast to 15 mg HSA/mL settled bed void volume for 40 g DCW/L yeast and remained unchanged for the higher yeast concentrations (60 to 100 g DCW/L). However, the batch (or equilibrium) binding capacity decreased monotonically as a function of yeast concentration (20 to 100 g DCW/L) and the binding capacity at 100 g DCW/L yeast was fivefold lower compared with that at 20 g DCW/L yeast. The lower batch binding capacity at high cell concentrations resulted from the adsorption of cells at the surface of the particles restricting access of HSA to the intraparticle surface area. Batch (or equilibrium) and column HSA adsorption results indicated that the adsorption of HSA on FmZr occurred at a time scale that may be much faster than that of yeast cells. The zirconia particles were cleaned of adsorbed HSA and yeast with a total of 1500 to 2000 column volumes (over many cycles) of 0. 25 M NaOH, without any significant effect on the chromatographic performance.