The Use of Chromatography to Manufacture Purer and Safer Plasma Products

Chromatography is as old as the bible. According to the Old Testament, Moses realized that the rotten cellulose of the tree could be used to exchange the magnesium ions in the water, leaving the water sweet to taste. Centuries later, we now have a better understanding of how chromatography can be harnessed to purify not just water but one of the most precious of juices, blood. Blood transfusion medicine can be traced back to classical Greek times when it was based on Hippocratic and Galenic concepts of four humours — sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and bilious. Donation from the milder species of gentle disposition was supposed to have a calming influence on the recipient of the blood. Centuries later, we have a better understanding of what makes blood so special and how to transfuse it and its derivatives to a patient in a way that is efficacious and safe. This review looks at how chromatography came to play a key role in purifying important therapeutic products from the blood. The threat of emerging blood-borne