[Purification of follicle-stimulating hormone from human pituitary glands].

A highly purified follicle-stimulating hormone from human pituitary glands has been prepared by ammonium sulfate and ethanol fractionation, gel filtration on Sephadex G-100, ion exchange chromatography on carboxymethyl cellulose, zone electrophoresis on cellulose columns, and preparative continuous flow polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The final product has shown lO,OOO-fold purification over the crude pituitary acetone powder. The follicle-stimulating hormone has sedimented as a single boundary in the ultracentrifuge with an ~~0,~ value of 2.04, has shown a single zone in polyacrylamide disc electrophoreses at pH 8.6 and pH 4.3, and has shown a single precipitin line in immunoelectrophoresis in agar against anti-follicle-stimulating hormone sera produced in rabbits. The purified follicle-stimulating hormone contained 185 NIH-FSH-S3 and less than 0.02 NIH-LH-S4 (luteinizing hormone) units per mg, and was free of pituitary, thyrotropic, growth, prolactic, and adrenocorticotropic hormones.