title: Human beta-melanocyte-stimulating hormone revisited.
abstract: It is generally accepted that human beta-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (h beta MSH) does not normally exist in humans but was merely an artifactually generated 22-amino acid peptide corresponding to a lipotropin (LPH) fragment (residues 35-56). We examined whether the shorter 18-amino acid peptide h beta MSH-(5-22) could be detected in some human tissues. Normal human pituitaries and hypothalami as well as corticotropin-secreting pituitary and nonpituitary tumors were extracted and chromatographed on Sephadex G-50, and the fractions were measured with two radioimmunoassays using either a COOH-terminal human gamma LPH (h gamma LPH) antiserum that recognized equally h gamma LPH, h beta MSH, and h beta MSH-(5-22) or a mid-portion h gamma LPH antiserum that recognized h gamma LPH and h beta MSH but not h beta MSH-(5-22). Normal pituitaries and pituitary tumors contained a single immunoreactive material coeluting with h gamma LPH. The hypothalami and the nonpituitary tumors all contained h gamma LPH and a smaller molecular weight material that was only detected in the COOH-terminal h gamma LPH radioimmunoassay; its elution volume (Ve/V, 0.75) was identical to that of h beta MSH-(5-22) but different from that of h beta MSH (Ve/V, 0.60); on reversed-phase HPLC, it coeluted with synthetic h beta MSH-(5-22) with a retention time different from that of h beta MSH. It is concluded that h beta MSH-(5-22) that corresponds to the 18-amino acid peptide h beta LPH-(39-56), flanked by two pairs of basic amino acids within the h beta LPH molecule, is a normal maturation product of proopiomelanocortin in human nonpituitary tissues.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D000939:Epitopes; D006801:Humans; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000032:analysis*; D009074:Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormones / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000032:analysis*; D011333:Pro-Opiomelanocortin / Q000378:metabolism; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D011863:Radioimmunoassay
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D011333:Pro-Opiomelanocortin; D009074:Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormones