ABSTRACT

Different forms of GH present in freshly prepared homogenates of chicken pituitary were analysed by high-performance gel permeation chromatography and by immunoblotting following sodium dodecylsulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focussing. Chicken GH was found to occur mainly in a monomeric form with a relative molecular mass of 23 500 together with small amounts of interchain disulphide-linked oligomers. No evidence was obtained for proteolytically modified forms of GH nor for a form analogous to the 20K variant of human GH. Isoelectric focussing resolved ten distinct charge variants of chicken GH with isoelectric points between 8·45 and 6·0. The predominant charge variant (pI = 7·85) was present in pituitaries of birds of both sexes at all ages examined (3–114 days) whereas the more acidic forms were not apparent until after day 13. These findings indicate that the chicken pituitary contains different forms of GH, some of which may be developmentally regulated.

J. Endocr. (1988) 116, 35–41

ABSTRACT

Cultured chicken hepatocytes were used to investigate whether insulin and GH interact to regulate insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) production in vitro. In the first set of experiments hepatocytes were preincubated for 6 h in hormone-free medium, and the effects of various combinations of insulin and GH on IGF-I production over the next 24 h were quantified by radioimmunoassay. Basal IGF-I production was 5·36 pg IGF-I/μg DNA and this was increased 1·31±0·13-fold (mean ± s.e.m.) by insulin, 1·90±0·24-fold by GH and 4·46±0·68-fold by a combination of insulin and GH. These results demonstrate that insulin and GH interact synergistically to stimulate IGF-I production in vitro. The synergism with GH occurred at physiological concentrations of insulin with half-maximal stimulation occurring at an insulin concentration of 6 ng/ml. In hepatocytes which had been exposed to insulin immediately before the start of the experiment, the presence of insulin was no longer required for maximal stimulation of IGF-I production by GH. This in-vitro system will facilitate the study of the molecular basis of the interaction between insulin and GH.

Journal of Endocrinology (1991) 128, 389–393

ABSTRACT

The chicken pituitary gland contains a number of naturally occurring, developmentally regulated forms of GH which have identical molecular weights but differ in their isoelectric points. In order to characterize their biological properties, each must be separated from non-GH proteins and other forms of GH. Chicken GH (cGH) was separated from other pituitary proteins by immunoaffinity chromatography using an anti-GH monoclonal antibody covalently linked to Sepharose 4B. The cGH eluted from this column as a single peak and migrated as a single band during sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), but showed multiple bands on isoelectric focussing. This material was chromatographed on a high-performance cation exchange column, and separation of charge isomers was monitored by a combination of isoelectric focussing and immunoblotting. Chicken GH eluted from this column in two distinct peaks. The minor peak (cGH P1) contained an isomer with an isoelectric point of 6·86 and the major peak (cGH P2) an isomer with an isoelectric point of 7·52. Each isomer migrated as a single band during isoelectric focussing and SDS-PAGE (M _r = 23 500), and as a single peak during high-performance gel permeation chromatography and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Analysis of cGH P2 through 30 cycles in a gas-phase microsequencer gave an amino acid sequence identical to that predicted by translation of the GH complementary DNA nucleotide sequence.

This single charge isomer increased the rate of lipolysis in chicken adipose tissue explants by about fourfold and was able to displace ¹²⁵I-labelled cGH from binding sites in liver membranes with a dissociation constant of about 4 nmol/l. The output of insulin-like growth factor-I by hepatocytes in culture was increased from a basal rate of 50·4±11·6 (mean ± s.e.m.) to 787·9 ± 98·6 pg/6 × 10⁶ cells per 48 h by two separate pulses of 1 μg cGH P2/ml. An i.v. injection of cGH P2 (15 μg/kg body weight) decreased the thyroxine:tri-iodothyronine ratio in serum of adult hens from 15·71 to 4·44, indicating an increase in 5′-monodeiodinase activity. These results demonstrate that the single most abundant charge isomer of chicken pituitary GH is likely to contain all the biological activity ascribed to the hormone.

Journal of Endocrinology (1990) 125, 207–215