Separation of monoclonal antibodies from cell-culture supernatants and ascites fluid using thiophilic agarose.

A one-step purification procedure will yield monoclonal antibodies from cell-culture supernatants and ascites fluids. The chromatographic adsorbent is thiophilic argose, i.e., beaded agarose gel coupled with ligands of thiophilic nature, often with a sulfone group and a sulfur atom. The chromatographic procedure is simply adsorption, wash, elution. The procedure is simple, efficient, and inexpensive.