Biochemical characterization of thymic hormones in thymoma tissues

Thymic hormones induce T-cell markers and functions. These polypeptide hormones have also been shown by means of immunocytochemistry to localize in thymic epithelial cells. Employing biochemical isolation procedures, we have studied the concentration of two thymic hormones, prothymosin alpha and thymosin beta 4, in the thymus of three thymoma patients. After a brief boiling step, thymic tissue obtained from each patient was individually homogenized and centrifuged. The supernatant was then fractionated by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and further purified by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Purified components were characterized by amino acid analysis and HPLC tryptic peptide mapping. Our results revealed that the extract from benign thymoma had both prothymosin alpha and thymosin beta 4, similar to normal human thymus. However, the thymus from a patient with invasive malignant thymoma contained only thymosin beta 4, but no prothymosin alpha. In the extract from an undifferentiated carcinoma, neither prothymosin alpha nor thymosin beta 4 could be detected. These results disclose the possible correlation of thymic hormones and the type and differentiation stage of thymomas. The inability of malignant thymic tumors to produce normal amounts of thymic hormones may contribute to their etiology. It is suggested that information on the thymic hormone content might add a new parameter to pathological diagnosis in thymic tumors.