Hydrophilic polymer carrier for proteins

Claim 1

A method for making a pearl-like crosslinked hydrophilic carrier polymer capable of binding proteins, which method comprises inverse pearl polymerizing, by free radical polymerization, a monomer phase distributed as droplets in a non-aqueous organic medium, said monomer phase comprising a monomer mixture of (1) 30 to 95 percent, by weight of the total weight of polymerizable monomers, of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of acrylamide, methacrylamide, methyl-bisacrylamide, and methylene-bis-methacrylamide, (2) 0 to 65 percent of further hydrophilic free radically polymerizable conomers, (3) 5 to 60 percent of at least one unsaturated free radically polymerizable monomer having an oxirane group, and (4) 0 to 25 percent of at least one other free radically polymerizable comonomer of slight hydrophilicity, of which polymerizable monomers at least 5 percent by weight are monomers having at least two polymerizable double bonds, said monomer phase further including a diluent which is a mixture of (A) at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of water, formamide, glycol, and dimethylsulfoxide, and (B) at least one organic liquid different from (A) which forms a homogeneous phase with the aforesaid monomer mixture and with (A), has a molecular weight below 200, and contains at least 20 percent by weight of oxygen, as hydroxyl groups, (A) and (B) being present in said diluent mixture in a ratio such as forms a homogeneous phase with said monomer mixture and such that the monomer phase comprising said monomer mixture and diluent mixture is incompatible with, and suspended in, said non-aqueous organic medium.

Claim 2

A method for making a pearl-like crosslinked hydrophilic carrier polymer capable of binding proteins, which method comprises inverse pearl polymerizing, by free radical polymerization, a monomer phase distributed as droplets in a non-aqueous organic medium, said monomer phase comprising a monomer mixture of (1) 30 to 95 percent, by weight of the total weight of polymerizable monomers, of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of acrylamide, methacrylamide, methyl-bisacrylamide, and methylene-bis-methacrylamide, (2) 0 to 65 percent of further hydrophilic free radically polymerizable conomers, (3) 5 to 60 percent of at least one unsaturated free radically polymerizable monomer having an oxirane group, and (4) 0 to 25 percent of at least one other free radically polymerizable comonomer of slight hydrophilicity, of which polymerizable monomers at least 5 percent by weight are monomers having at least two polymerizable double bonds, said monomer phase further including a diluent which is a mixture of (A) at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of water, formamide, glycol, and dimethylsulfoxide, and (B) at least one organic liquid different from (A) which forms a homogeneous phase with the aforesaid monomer mixture and with (A), has a molecular weight below 200, and contains at least 20 percent by weight of oxygen, as hydroxyl groups, (A) and (B) being present in said diluent mixture in a ratio such as forms a homogeneous phase with said monomer mixture and such that the monomer phase comprising said monomer mixture and diluent mixture is incompatible with, and suspended in, said non-aqueous organic medium.