A comparison of three methods for extracting IgY from the egg yolk of hens immunized with sendai virus

Hens were immunized with partially purified Sendai virus that had been grown on chicken embryos. The titres of specific antibodies to Sendai virus varied from log(2) 13.0 to 15.5 during the 4 months after immunization and the immunoglobulin Y (IgY) concentration varied from 2 to 10 mg per ml of egg yolk. A method has been developed employing dextran blue to isolate IgY from the egg yolk. The dextran blue method was compared with two other methods (poly(ethylene glycol) and chloroform) in terms of yield, total protein content, IgY concentration, specific activity of IgY and SDS-PAGE analysis. The specific activity and the IgY content obtained by these three methods proved to be identical, in the range log(2) 12.9-14.1, and 4.6-12.8 mg/egg, respectively. However, the total protein content when purified by chloroform was 2-fold to 4-fold higher than that of the others. The analysis of IgY by SDS-PAGE demonstrated that IgY purified with dextran blue contained three major protein components with molecular weights of 34.7 kDa, 41 kDa and 66 kDa and one minor protein of 45 kDa. IgY that was extracted with chloroform contained two major proteins of 45.7 kDa and 75.2 kDa and that extracted with PEG-6000 contained only one major protein of 66 kDa. The IgY obtained by these latter methods also contained several minor proteins in the range 41-80 kDa.