Chromatography of human urinary erythropoietin and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor on insolubilized phytohaemagglutinin

Human urinary erythropoetin was absorbed to phytohaemagglutinin coupled to agarose or porous glass and quatitatively eluted by a saturated solution of MgCl2. This method provides a means of separating erythropoietin from several of its contaminants, presumably on the basis of its carbohydrate side chains. Erythropoietin which had been purified by chromatography on insolubilized phytohaemagglutinin was sufficiently free of toxicity to be assayable in tissue culture even when crude urine was used as a starting material.