Simple preparative two-step purification of interleukin-2 from culture medium of lectin stimulated normal human...

A procedure has been developed for the rapid purification of human IL-2 using reversed-phase liquid chromatography on LiChroprep RP-8 and Separon SGX C-18. The resulting IL-2 has a specific activity of 1 X 10(7) U/mg protein and reveals in SDS-PAGE 2 molecular weight forms (approximately 14 kDa and approximately 16 kDa) under reducing and non-reducing conditions. Both forms are biologically active. In 2-dimensional electrophoresis purified IL-2 shows a complex pattern of protein spots located in the IL-2 region which may be due to differences in glycosylation.