Hydrophobicity gradient columns for the separation of trypsin inhibitor by hydrophobic interaction chromatography at low salt concentration.

We investigated hydrophobicity gradient columns composed of two columns packed with supports of different hydrophobicities in order to save time in protein separation by hydrophobic interaction chromatography at low salt concentration using a crude sample of trypsin inhibitor as a model sample. One of the two hydrophobicity gradient columns was packed with a support whose hydrophobicity was critically controlled for target protein (trypsin inhibitor) and the other was packed with a support which was less hydrophobic than the critically controlled hydrophobicity support. It was found that the hydrophobicity gradient columns are useful to separate samples containing impurities of a wide range of hydrophobicities within a reasonable time.