Isolation of urokinase by affinity ultrafiltration.

A water-soluble, ligand-bound polymer has been synthesized for the purpose of isolation of urokinase, an important plasminogen activator. The affinity polymer was formed by copolymerizing N-acryloyl-m-aminobenza-midicine and acrylamide in the absence of oxygen. An affinity ultrafiltration process was then developed for isolating urokinase from an artificial solution containing peroxidase and urokinase and from a crude urine source. The process yields were determined to be 86% and 49%, respectively. The recovered urokinase exhibited a specific activity close to that of the highest commercial grade. This article also presents a new technique for assaying urokinase by coupling plasminogen with L-benzoyl arginine-p-nitroanilide (L-BAPNA), an inexpensive chromogenic substrate.