Production of Lactoferrin

Bovine lactoferrin (bLf) is commercially available, but the quality varies greatly among manufacturers. The current industry practice is to isolate lactoferrin from milk or whey by ion-exchange chromatography followed by membrane filtration. This process is not necessarily able to effectively remove other minor components and endotoxins, and more steps may be needed (Perraudin & De Valck, 2020).

However, Lihme Protein Solutions has developed a solution where highly specific adsorbent, combined with our ChimerAds technology, isolates a very pure lactoferrin in few steps.

Our ChimerAds technique has proven very efficient in isolating high quality lactoferrin from both milk and whey.

Lactoferrin – the protein

Lactoferrin is an 80-kDa iron-binding glycoprotein that belongs to the transferrin family. This multifunctional protein is found in secretions of mammals, most abundant in human colostrum (~7 g/L) and mature human milk (~1 g/L) and to a lesser content in bovine colostrum (~1.5 mg/L) and mature bovine milk (~0.5 mg/L).

The function of lactoferrin is due to its ability to sequester iron and to interfere with cellular receptors of pathogenic microorganisms.

Lactoferrin – health benefits

Due to its multifunctional character and great resemblance to its human counterpart, bovine lactoferrin has a significant commercial appeal, not only in infant formulas but also for maintaining human health.

The health benefits of lactoferrin includes immunomodulating properties, antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activities, anti-inflammatory activities, and iron regulation.