Immobilization of urease in gelatin beads for urea estimation

Abstract

Urease was immobilized in gelatin beads. The optimum immobilization (79%
activity) was observed at 4 C° with protein concentration of 1.0 mg/ml. the apparent
optimum pH shifted from 7.5 to 6.5. Immobilized urease showed optimum activity at
60 C° compared with 40 C° for the soluble urease.The immobilized urease remained
very active over long period of time and this enzyme lost about 40% of its original
activity over the period of 60 days for storage at 4C compared with soluble urease
which lost about 75% its activity in the same conditions. Blood urea estimation is
carried out with immobilized enzyme beads compared with soluble enzyme and the
beads can be used repeatedly for this purpose making it economical procedure
compared to standard chemical method.