Medical Applications of Affinity Chromatography

Abstract

Metabolic waste products are cleared from the body primarily by the kidney and liver. Low molecular weight, non protein-bound molecules such as urea, creatinine and uric acid are filtered at the glomerulus and excreted in the urine. When the kidneys fail, hemodialysis is an effective means of removing these substances from the blood, and the widespread use of hemodialysis has significantly prolonged the useful life of many patients with renal disease. Protein-bound metabolic waste products such as bilirubin (BR), as well as many exogenously administered drugs, circulate in plasma tightly bound to serum albumin, are non-dialyzable, and are not excreted in the urine. Instead, these substances are cleared almost exclusively by the liver and are excreted in the bile. At present, there exists no generally effective technique for removing these substances from the blood of patients with liver failure.