Evidence for intragranular processing of pro-opiocortin in the mouse pituitary intermediate lobe

Mouse pituitary neurointermediate lobes were pulse-incubated in [3H] arginine or [3H] lysine for 10 min and then chase-incubated for periods 0 to 4h. The labeled peptides from the lobes were analysed by immunoprecipitation with specific antisera, and thereafter, by acid-urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Using this paradigm, the synthesis of a prohormone common to adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and endorphin was detected in 10 min pulse labeled lobes. Following a chase period, processing of the prohormone to several forms of ACTH (mol. wt. 25000, 23000, and 13000), beta-lipotropin and beta-endorphin was observed. To determine the intracellular site of processing of the prohormone, subcellular fractionation studies of labeled lobes were carried out. Analysis of the fractions from the pulse-labeled lobes revealed that the newly synthesized labeled prohormone was primarily localized in a granule-enriched fraction. In lobes that were pulsed and then chase-incubated for 1 h, there was a decrease in the amount of prohormone and an appearance of processed products in the granule-enriched fraction. In another paradigm, where the secretory granule-fraction was isolated from pulse-labeled lobes and then incubated in vitro for 6 h at pH 5.5, processing of the endogenous labeled prohormone within the isolated granule fraction was observed. These data suggest, that in the mouse neurointermediate lobe, the ACTH/endorphin prohormone (pro-opiocortin) is rapidly packaged into secretory granules after synthesis and processed intragranularly.