Because of high specificity, immunoaffinity chromatography is the most suitable procedure for the isolation of lipoprotein (LP) particles defined by their apolipoprotein (Apo) composition. The purpose of the present study was to describe immunosorber methodology and its application to the isolation of ApoB-containing lipoproteins from either plasma or isolated lipoprotein density classes. The exploration of various coupling procedures demonstrated that immunosorbers of highest capacity were obtained by cyanogen bromide activation of Sepharose. Among various dissociating agents tested, 3 M sodium thiocyanate was found to be the most effective desorbent for bound lipoproteins. Studies on the non-specific binding of serum albumin to several different immunosorbers showed a negligible retention (1.9%) of albumin. Good recoveries (80-98%) were obtained with all apolipoproteins tested with both anti-ApoA-I and anti-LP-B immunosorbers. By using the optimal experimental conditions, it was shown that the ApoB-containing lipoproteins retained by immunosorbers with antibodies to LP-B had chemical, physical and immunological properties similar, if not identical, to those of their corresponding parent density classes. The application of an alternative immunoaffinity chromatography procedure with serially connected immunosorbers with antibodies to apolipoproteins other than ApoB resulted in the isolation of LP-B, a lipoprotein containing ApoB as its sole protein constitutent. LP-B had chemical and physical properties very similar to those of subclass 2 of low-density lipoproteins (density 1.019-1.063 g/ml, flotation coefficient 0-12). Based on these studies, we suggest that immunoaffinity chromatography in combination with microanalytical procedures for quantification of lipids and apolipoproteins offers a powerful tool for the isolation and functional characterization of lipoprotein particles defined by their apolipoprotein composition.