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Endocrinology, Vol 127, 330-336, Copyright © 1990 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

The molecular weight profile of enkephalin-containing peptides in the sheep adrenal gland changes during development

CL Coulter, CA Browne and IC McMillen
Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

We have measured the content of enkephalin-containing peptides (ENK- containing peptides) in adrenal gland extracts from fetal sheep between 68-142 days gestation and from adult sheep. We investigated whether there are changes in the post-translational processing of ENK- containing peptides in the fetal sheep adrenal gland with increasing gestational age. ENK-containing peptides in adrenal extracts from fetal sheep (68-142 days gestation) and adult sheep were separated using gel filtration chromatography and the ENK immunoreactivity (ENK-IR) was measured using RIAs for Met-enkephalin-Arg6,Phe7 immunoreactivity (MERF- IR) and Met-o-enk immunoreactivity (MET-O-ENK-IR). The MET-O-ENK-IR in fetal and adult sheep adrenal extracts was distributed in four main peaks, which corresponded to mol wt (MW) ranges of more than 12, 7-12, 3-7, and less than 3 kDa. There was a significant increase (P less than 0.05) in the total ENK-IR content of the fetal adrenal between 68-78 (42.4 +/- 19.2 ng/adrenal) and 100-121 (320.1 +/- 142.6 ng/adrenal) days gestation. There was also a significant increase in the proportion of MET-O-ENK-IR and MERF in the less than 3 kDa range between 68-78 (MET-O-ENK, 6.8 +/- 2.7%; MERF, 10.3 +/- 1.4%) and 100-121 (MET-O-ENK, 24.4 +/- 5.1%; MERF, 26.2 +/- 5.8%) days gestation, with an associated decrease in the ratio of ENK-containing peptides in the high MW form (i.e. greater than 3 kDa) compared to those in the low MW (less than 3 kDa) forms (10.4 +/- 2.5 at 68-78 days gestation; 4.2 +/- 1.1 at 100- 121 days gestation). There was also a significant decrease in the percentage of MET-O-ENK in the 12 kDa range after 139 days gestation (125-135 days gestation, 20.4 +/- 2.2%; 139-142 days gestation, 4.0 +/- 2.1%). Therefore, there is an increase in the proportion of the low MW forms of ENK-containing peptides in the fetal sheep adrenal with advancing gestational age, which may reflect changes in the post- translational processing of the precursor proenkephalin-A during development.




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Copyright © 1990 by The Endocrine Society