Mammalian pituitary growth hormone: applications of free flow electrophoresis

We have used free flow electrophoresis (FFE) technology to study the electrophoretic behavior of growth hormone (GH) molecules, GH secretory granules and GH cell subpopulations contained in pituitary glands of humans and rodents. GH activities in different electrophoresis fractions were measured by immunoassay or bioassay, viz., measurement of chondrocyte proliferation in the tibial growth plate of the hypophysectomized rat. Using FFE we discovered a peptide in human post mortem pituitary tissue and cryopoor human plasma that is active in the tibial line bioassay, is inactive in a GH immunoassay, and is neither GH nor a GH fragment. This peptide, called tibial peptide, has high anodal mobility and is readily separable from GH by FFE. Its molecular mass is approximately 5 kD. It is particularly rich in glycine. A partial amino acid sequence (residues 9-25) in the middle region of the peptide shows that 9 of the 16 residues are nonpolar. On the basis of results from other FFE experiments, using either GH-containing secretory granules or GH-producing cells, we believe that the peptide is stored within the secretion granule of a subpopulation of GH cells. On the basis of recent information elucidating the role of C peptide contained in the insulin storage granule of the pancreatic cell, we propose that the tibial peptide serves a similar role in the GH cell. Thus, not only may tibial peptide aid in proper alignment of disulfide bonds between GH monomers in the secretory granule, but, like the C peptide, it also appears to have biologic activity in its own right.