Parathyroid hormone fragments in secretory granules of human parathyroid adenomata

The composition of human parathyroid hormone immunoreactivity in the secretory granule fraction of parathyroid hormone adenomata was investigated. Granular extracts were separated by gel filtration and the eluates assayed by radioimmunoassay and sequence specific immunoradiometric assays detecting aminoterminal and carboxyterminal activity. About half of the extracted adenomata contained fragments besides intact hormone. The fragment composition varied from adenoma to adenoma.