Bovine κ-casein glycomacropeptide (GMP) is a sialic acid containing glycopeptide having many biological activities. The study described in this research communication was undertaken to determine whether sialic acid rich glycopeptide can be produced from GMP by proteinase treatment. A sample of GMP was hydrolyzed with papain, and the obtained hydrolysate was chromatographed on a column of diethylaminoethyl-Sephacel to obtain a glycopeptide fraction (GPF). This product accounted for average 48.1% dry weight of GMP or 81.1% total recovered sialic acid from GMP. The content of sialic acid (expressed as % dry weight) was 1.7 times higher in GPF (22.6) than in unhydrolyzed GMP (13.4). Major differences in amino acid composition between GPF and GMP were found in the contents (mol%) of: lysine (<1 and 4.5, respectively), serine (20.3 and 10.3, approximately twice higher in GPF), asparagine/aspartic acid and isoleucine. The contents of the last two amino acids were approximately twice lower in GPF. On gel filtration chromatography with Sephacryl S-100, GMP was eluted as a single peak with elution volume similar to that of dimeric β-lactoglobulin (36.6 kDa) whereas GPF was eluted in two peaks both with elution volumes greater than that of α-lactalbumin (14.2 kDa). These peak fractions containing high (fraction I) and low (fraction II) molecular size glycopeptides gave different sialic acid to peptide ratio, which was 1.7 times higher in fraction I than in fraction II. Results of size exclusion HPLC on Superdex-75 were consistent with those of gel filtlation chromatography. On cellulose acetate electrophoresis, the mobility of GPF relative to that of GMP as 1.0 was found to average 1.2, suggesting a higher negative charge density in GPF than in GMP. It was concluded that papain digestion of GMP is an efficient method to produce glycopeptide with high sialic acid content.

Bovine κ-casein glycomacropeptide (GMP) found in cheese whey is a sialylated phosphorylated peptide which is thought to be a potential ingredient for functional food as well as dietetic food. This study was undertaken to determine whether high purity GMP can be isolated from soluble whey fraction (SWF) using column chromatography on food grade anion exchange resin and chitin as an adsorbent. Samples of commercially available anion exchange resin (resin A, resin B and resin C) and those of chitin (chitin A, chitin B and chitin C) were examined in this experiment. The GMP fraction obtained from each column was analyzed for amino acid composition which reflects the purity of the peptide. Major findings for commercial anion exchange resin were that: (1) the proportion of GMP monitored as sialic acid in total recovered sialic acid was similar among the three samples of resin accounting for average 78% of recovered sialic acid; (2) the GMP fraction from resin A or resin B contained undetectable level of contaminating amino acids including phenylalanine, histidine, arginine and tyrosine; (3) the GMP fraction from resin C contained small amounts (<1 mol%) of contaminating amino acids, arginine, phenylalanine and tyrosine; and (4) the GMP binding capacity expressed as mg/100 mg dry weight of resin was more than 2.5 times higher in resin C (average 22.9) than in resin A or resin B with no difference between resin A and resin B averaging 8.7. Results obtained for chitin A, chitin B and chitin C were in general similar to those found with resin A and resin B. Since chitin has a remarkable GMP binding capacity averaging 8.6 mg/100 mg dry weight of chitin, it may be a useful adsorbent for whey fractionation. Further research is needed to develop an efficient inexpensive method to purify GMP.

Bovine κ-casein glycomacropeptide (GMP) found in sweet whey is a 64 amino acid residue glycopeptide, which does not contain phenylalanine or other aromatic amino acids. There is, however, little information available concerning isolation of phenylalanine free GMP from sweet whey. In the study reported in this Research Communication, GMP was purified from three samples of sweet whey protein products (SWPP) by a procedure involving: (1) precipitation of protein by heat treatment; (2) precipitation of protein by pH shift to 4·6; and (3) diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-Sephacel anion exchange chromatography of soluble portion of each sample obtained after removal of protein precipitates. The total protein precipitated with both heat treatment and pH shift accounted for average 61% of dry weight of SWPP. The GMP fraction obtained by DEAE-Sephacel chromatography accounted for average 7·5% of dry weight of SWPP. Amino acid analysis showed that there was no detectable level of phenylalanine in GMP fractions from all samples examined. The present method may help develop large scale methods of production of GMP.