Partial purification of human renin.

An affinity gel for the purification of renin was prepared by coupling pepstatin to aminohexylagarose gel. Partially purified human renin (Haas et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 110, 534-543, 1965) was purified further by affinity chromatography on the pepstatin-aminohexyl-agarose gel, gel filtration on a Sephadex G-75 column, and ion exchange chromatography on a DEAE-cellulose column. Separation from a protease permitted further purification without progressive loss of activity. Three peaks of enzymatically active renin were obtained after the DEAE-cellulose chromatography, with specific activities ranging from 206 to 166 and 85 Goldblatt units/mg protein, respectively. The specific activity of 206 GU units/mg represents a 103,000-fold purification compared to the renin present in the first crude extract.