Purification and characteristics of a protective factor from Bacillus anthracis toxin

: It was found that during filtration of a sterile toxic cultural supernatant (TCS) obtained by 24 hour cultivation of the vaccinal strain through a column packed with porous glass or silochrome not only oedematic (OF) and lethal (LF), but also protective (PF) factors of toxin are adsorbed on the column. Elution of adsorbed antigens allowed for rapid concentration and purification of biologically active components of toxin from large volumes of TCS under conditions of limited proteolysis. The experimental results suggest that in 24 hour TCS and PF exists as large (87 kD) molecules as well as low molecular weight fragments whose molecular mass is of the order of 17-18 kD. The PF preparations whose molecular mass is below 68 kD possess a weak biological activity.