Extraction and purification of recombinant human serum albumin from Pichia pastoris broths using aqueous two-phase system combined with hydrophobic interaction chromatography

Recombinant human serum albumin (rHSA) is considered as an alternative of human serum albumin and used to treat patients with severe burn, shock or blood loss. However, separation and purification of rHSA are difficult and have become the bottle neck in industrial production. In this study, ethanol/K2HPO4 aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) and hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) were integrated to provide a new approach for the extraction and purification of rHSA from high density fermentation broth. Using a 0.01–73 L ATPS scale, the extraction of rHSA from the fermentation broth attained an average recovery of 100.4%. At the same time, 99.8% of cells and 87.2% of polysaccharides as well as some other protein impurities were also removed. The activity of proteinase A in the broth was also remarkably decreased. The purified rHSA appeared as a single band on reduced SDS–PAGE gel, and it had a purity of 99.1% as determined by HPLC. It was essentially identical to the plasma-derived HSA in terms of molecular weight and circular dichroism spectrum. The total recovery of rHSA was 75.2%, which was 1.1–2.0 times higher than that obtained from conventional processes. Residual polysaccharide was reduced to 1.61 μg/mg rHSA and the degree of coloring was lower than that of plasma-derived HSA. The procedure employed in this study has the advantages of simple operation, shorter time, low energy consumption and high yield, and it could produce rHSA with high purity. It is therefore suitable in the production of rHSA and other biological products produced by high-density fermentation.