Partial purification and characterization of somatomedin from sheep serum

A rapid, high yield preparative technique for the isolation of sheep somatomedin is reported. Purification of biologically active somatomedin from the 60% ammonium sulfate precipitate of sheep serum was accomplished using three gentle fractionation steps. Biological activity during purification was monitored using the rat adipocyte nonsuppressible insulin-like activity (NSILA) assay. A stepwise pH elution (pH 2.85, 3.5, 4.5, and 6.0) from SP-Sephadex resulted in the elimination of more than 99% of the serum proteins and a 500-fold enhancement of biological activity. The active fraction eluted at pH 6.0 and was further fractionated on Sephadex G-50 (fine) chromatography at pH 2.85. This resulted in about a 10,000-fold enhancement of activity over serum activity. The most active fractions from Sephadex chromatography were further separated on reverse phase HPLC in 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid using a linear gradient of 24-60% acetonitrile. The biological activity of the final preparation was enhanced 61,000- to 182,000-fold over that of serum (mean, 93,000-fold) when assayed in the NSILA assay. Protein yield was estimated to be 467 micrograms/liter serum. In addition to the NSILA activity, the final preparation demonstrated dose-dependent sulfation factor activity in the embryonic chick pelvic leaflet bioassay. Sheep somatomedin was active at physiological levels in both bioassays. Analysis of the somatomedin preparation by sodium dodecyl sulfate-electrophoresis at pH 8.8 showed that it was homogeneous by this criterion. The activity eluted from Sephadex G-50 was estimated to have a molecular size of 6900. Two Coomassie blue-stained bands were present in the final sheep somatomedin preparation after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at pH 3.2. Our purification process is a rapid, high yield technique which yields a polypeptide fraction enriched in NSILA and somatomedin-like activity. The molecular size and biological activity in the NSILA and sulfation factor assays suggest that our sheep NSILA is analogous to somatomedins purified from other species of animals.