A procedure has been developed for the rapid purification of mouse interleukin 2 (IL2) to apparent homogeneity, using gel filtration, anion exchange, hydrophobic chromatography, and reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). IL2 eluted at a high concentration of acetonitrile on HPLC (approximately 40%), well removed from other proteins. This protocol did not resolve isoelectric variant forms of IL2. Both the biological activity and protein migrated as a band of apparent molecular weight 22,000-23,000 on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It had a high potency, producing 30% of the maximal response in T cell growth at a concentration of 2-4 X 10(-12) M. Mouse Il2 synthesized in a wheat germ cell-free translation system behaved similarly on RP-HPLC as the form secreted by EL4 cells. Thus, the hydrophobicity of mouse IL2, which facilitates its purification, is an intrinsic property of the protein, determined primarily by its amino acid sequence.