Efficient isolation of the subunits of recombinant and pituitary glycoprotein hormones.

Complete dissociation into subunits was attained by incubating Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-derived or native human thyrotropin, follitropin and lutropin overnight at 37 degrees C in acetic acid. The alpha-and beta-subunits of the pituitary glycoprotein hormones were rapidly and quantitatively isolated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). A dissociation efficiency of > 98% was obtained on the basis of mass determinations of the heterodimers and subunits carried out via mass spectrometry. CHO-derived or native subunits were isolated on a C4 column (80-90% total recovery) and characterized comparatively for purity, hydrophobicity, molecular mass and charge distribution by HPLC, mass spectrometry, sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing. Thyrotropin was used as a model for showing that, after subunit reassociation, the in vivo bioactivity of the hormone was completely restored. The method described is mild, practical, flexible, and can be adapted to dissociate microgram amounts of native or recombinant glycoprotein hormones, allowing characterization of each subunit.

Human pituitary hormones extraction.

In order to know the efficiency of the human pituitary hormone extraction method utilized in the laboratory, six batches of 100 pituitaries each, were collected in acetone. Its delipidization and the initial acid extraction (0.3 M KCl, pH 5.5) of the powder were performed in the presence of 0.1 per cent thioethanol and the extraction was completed with an alkaline solution (0.1 N NaOH + H2O, v/v, pH 10.5). Hields in weight of powder and protein concentration for each fraction were similar to those previously reported by Elrick. Characterization of fractions with disc-gel-electrophoresis demonstrated a reproducible pattern for GH, and some differences among the samples containing the glycoproteins. The hormonal activities determined by radioimmunoassay showed a low contamination of GH in the fractions rich in glycoproteins, but these latter were similarly distributed between the acid and the alkaline extracts. The glycoprotein fraction had an important activity of TSH. The hormonal content per pituitary was calculated from the addition of activities in both extracts and the last residue; GH = 3 mg (4.494 IU); FSH = 761 micrograms (13.410 IU); LH = 782 micrograms (46.920 IU); TSH = 2.939 mg (9.350 IU). It is concluded that the technique is useful since there was a low GH contamination in the glycoprotein fraction and the TSH yield was important.