Degradation of parathyroid hormone by placental homogenate

Degradation of the bovine parathyroid hormone (PTH) fragment (amino acids 35-84) up to 70% was observed during passage through human placenta in an in vitro perfusion model. Fractionation of the subcellular fractions of human placental homogenate revealed the degradation to take place only in the mitochondrial fraction. It is concluded that human placenta, like kidney and liver, has the ability to degrade PTH.