Isolation of rat pituitary prolactin isohormones differing in charge, size, and specific immunological activity

A method has been described for the isolation of three differently charged isohormones of rat prolactin from a discard fraction obtained after extraction of gonadotropins, thyrotropin and growth hormone from homogenized frozen pituitaries. The procedure involved extraction at pH 9.8, ammonium sulphate fractionation, molecular sieve chromatography on Sephadex G-100, and column electrophoresis in agarose suspension. The purification was monitored by radioimmunoassays and the recovered components were all found to possess a specific immunoactivity exceeding that of the standard preparation (RP-1) supplied by the NIAMDD, Bethesda, U.S.A. Increased acidity among these isohormones was found to be paralleled by significantly decreased immunopotency. Each component showed biological activity in radioreceptor assay. A high degree of purity of the isolated components was shown by analytical electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel. Sodium dodecyl sulphate electrophoresis in the same medium showed no size heterogeneity and yielded a value of approximately 25 000 for the molecular weight of the isohormones. In addition a large form of prolactin, suggested to represent a dimer, was isolated by a further extraction step (pH 10.5) followed by molecular sieve chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and electrophoresis in agarose suspension. The large form was associated with both biopotency and immunopotency. The electrophoresis resolved the prolactin activity into three or four immunoactive components. This pleomorphism of the large prolactin was confirmed by analytical polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Amino acid analyses revealed a close similarity between the three monomers and the major dimeric form of the hormone.