Human pituitary luteinizing hormone. Isolation and characterization of four glycoproteins with luteinizing activity

Two major and two minor components of human luteinizing hormone (lutropin) were isolated from whole frozen pituitaries by a procedure involving extraction of homogenized pituitaries, (NH4)2SO4 fractionation, chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, Sephadex G-100, and SE-Sephadex C-50 and electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel. The isolation procedure was monitored by both bioassays and radioimmunoassays. Contamination of the final products by other pituitary hormone activities was very low. The four lutropin components were all homogeneous by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (a sieving medium) and by free zone electrophoresis (a non-sieving medium). No heterogeneity was observed when the components were studied in the ultracentrifuge by sedimentation-equilibrium technique. The molecular weights of the components were in the range of 34 000-40 000. Sedimentation velocity experiments with the two major components revealed in each case one boundary with S20,W values of 3.2 S and 3.5 S. Further evidence for the homogeneity of the components was the observation of only one precipitin line for each component upon immunodiffusion against a rabbit anti-human lutropin serum. Amino acid and carbohydrate analyses indicated close similarity among the four components. From the analysis data the molecular weights of the components were calculated to be 31 000-33 000.