Specific separation of cells on affinity columns.

Cell filtration is performed on affinity columns prepared by the chemical modification of large polyacrylamide beads. Affinity columns selectively bind cells that produce antihapten antibodies of corresponding specificity, while cells without the specific antihapten sites pass through freely and are recovered quantitatively in the eluate. The binding of the antihapten specific cells is inhibited by hapten. Such cell filtration affinity columns may be useful in specifically purifying cell populations with characteristic membrane-receptor proteins.