Assessment of Purification Protocols for Buffalo Pituitary Growth Hormone

Three different extraction protocols were applied to freshly frozen buffalo pituitaries collected from a local abattoir with a view to obtain a highly immunopotent preparation of buffalo GH. The 'enriched GH' obtained from each protocol was assessed on the basis of immunopotency and hormonal homogeneity. It was observed that, use of Ellis and Spitsberg protocols in tandem yielded the highest amount of immunoreactive prolactin free GH (ECS). Further, it was found to be relatively less contaminated with other protein impurities. Application of various chromatographic procedures on this enriched GH preparation (ECS) showed that Sephadex G-200 chromatography yielded most immunopotent GH preparation in high amounts. Further, the purification protocol was most convenient and reproducible procedure for obtaining bulk quantities of pure growth hormone from buffalo pituitaries.