Physicochemical and chromatographic evaluation of benzhydrylamine-resin as an anion exchanger solid support.

Benzhydrylamine-resin (BHAR), a copolymer of styrene-divinylbenzene containing phenylmethylamine groups, used as solid support for peptide synthesis, was examined regarding physicochemical and anion exchanger chromatographic properties. The greater the ionic strength of the medium the poorer the solvation of beads. This effect is less pronounced the higher the amino group content of BHAR. The BHAR chromatographic behavior was compared with commercial cationic resins in columns of constant cation binding capacity. Three negatively charged heparan sulfate disaccharides were successfully purified in a 2.4 mmol/g BHAR that showed as good or better anion exchange performance than classical tertiary or quaternary amino group-containing resins. The BHAR chromatographic resin exclusion limit was estimated to be 30 kDa based on purification experiments of heparins of different molecular weight.