Large-scale purification of active platelet integrin glycoprotein IIb–IIIa

Glycoprotein IIb–IIIa is an abundant platelet receptor of the integrin family that plays a primary role in platelet aggregation. It exists on the platelet surface predominantly in a resting or inactive conformation that is converted to an active binding competent conformation upon platelet activation. There is much interest in studying the difference between active and inactive GP IIb–IIIa, developing therapeutic agents targeted towards GP IIb–IIIa and developing diagnostic assays for antibodies that recognize epitopes on GP IIb–IIIa. We present here the development of a large-scale process for purifying active GP IIb–IIIa from human platelets. The procedure results in 25 mg batch sizes of high purity and activity. Additionally, the effects of detergent concentration and impurities such as IgG on ELISA assays are examined.