MICROBIAL PRODUCTION OF HIGH PURITY HYALURONIC ACID FROM STREPTOCOCCUS ZOOEPIDEMICUS

Abstract

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a hydrated gel and comprises repeating units of glucuronic acid and N-acetylglucosamine. In pursuit of high purity and recovery of HA, Streptococcus zooepidemicus was grown in 22 l bioreactor for 20 h and gave yield of 2.3g/L HA. The optimized purification process in the present study includes 1% activated charcoal followed by centrifugation, filtration (0.45ì m) and ultrafiltration in diafiltration mode. This method of purification process gave a recovery of 73 %, purity of 99.7 % with Mr of ~2.4×106 Da. Endotoxins and proteins were efficiently removed by this process, the purified HA complies the specifications of clinical grade HA.