Chemokines are members of the chemotactic cytokines family implicated in various immunoregulatory functions. The CXC-chemokine stromal cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1 alpha) was purified from the culture medium of murine bone marrow stromal cell line (MS-5) by affinity and reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Yield and purity were assessed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) with reference to the human SDF-1 alpha from recombinant DNA technology. CE technique was useful to evaluate the purity of human SDF-1 alpha from chemical synthesis and to resolve murine and human SDF-1 alpha, differing by only one amino acid. Chemotactic activity of the murine SDF-1 alpha was tested on the basis of CE quantification. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.