High-performance size exclusion chromatography of biological products

High-performance size exclusion chromatography has been applied to the analysis and separation of a range of ‘biological products’ — substances and preparations used in human medicine that cannot be completely defined by chemical and physical means. A variety of proteins and polysaccharides have been examined and results are described for a number of blood products, and polysaccharides of bacterial origin. This method is superior to conventional size esclusion for characterization of such substances and permits their isolation for further examination, without work-up, by biological and immunological techniques. The selection of appropriate column supports is considered. The limitations are considered of this procedure for studying the interaction between antithrombin III and heparin as the basis of a non-biological assay method.