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Guinea Pig Serum Contains a Specific High Affinity Growth Hormone-Binding Protein with Novel Ligand Specificity¹

Center for Hormone Research and the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne; and Center for Molecular Biotechnology, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Prof. Adrian C. Herington, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Queensland University of Technology, PO Box 2434, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia. E-mail: a.herington{at}qut.edu.au

Previous workers have suggested that guinea pig serum does not contain a GH-binding protein (GHBP) or that it is defective. The current studies, however, have identified and characterized the presence of GH-binding activity in guinea pig serum using gel chromatography to separate bound and free hormone. The detection of GH-binding activity is critically reliant on the type of radioligand used to measure binding. Clear identification of GH-binding activity was demonstrated with [¹²⁵I]ovine GH (oGH), but specific binding could not be measured with [¹²⁵I]human GH. The novel specificity was also shared by guinea pig liver membrane GH receptor (GHR) and cytosol GHBP, suggesting structural similarity in the GH-binding domain between the GHR and soluble GHBPs. The binding of oGH was dependent on serum concentration (5 µl serum produced 16.03 ± 0.5% specific binding; mean ± SEM; n = 11) and incubation time (equilibrium was reached by 6 h at 21 C) and was completely reversible (t_1/2, 2 h). Scatchard analysis revealed linear plots with an affinity constant (K_a) of 0.59 ± 0.09 x 10⁹ M^-1 and a capacity of 23,181 ± 4,474 fmol/ml serum. Similar association constants were obtained for liver membrane GHR (0.79 ± 0.22 x 10⁹ M^-1) and cytosol GHBPs (0.99 ± 0.15 x 10⁹ M^-1), but the capacity, when expressed as femtomoles per g tissue, was significantly increased (4-fold) in cytosol (4,303 ± 505) over that in membranes (1,071 ± 257). There was no sex difference in K_a or level of GHBP in guinea pig serum. Surprisingly, the level of GH-binding activity was very low to undetectable in pregnant guinea pig serum.

Characterization of the native structure of guinea pig GHBPs has indicated the presence of several proteins that are structurally distinct. Although the distribution of GH-binding activity covered a large M_r range (70–350 kDa) the major form of the circulating GHBP identified by gel chromatography had an apparent native M_r of 150–170 kDa. Partially purified GHBP (approximate M_r, 170 kDa) was covalently cross-linked to [¹²⁵I]oGH and subjected to nonreducing SDS-PAGE. Specific GHBP complexes of 158 and 85 kDa were detected, suggesting that the partially purified GHBP complex may be composed of a smaller GHBP associated noncovalently with a non-GH-binding protein. "Pore limit" native PAGE (cathodic and anodic) revealed the presence of specific GHBPs of 363, 158, 74, and 55 kDa, which cross-hybridized with the rat liver membrane GHR monoclonal antibody mAb 263 but not with the rat serum GHBP-specific mAb 4.3. Interestingly, although GH binding was undetectable in pregnant guinea pig serum, Western immunoblot analysis with mAb 263 demonstrated the presence of a major immunoreactive GHBP band of 105 kDa in addition to 158- and 55-kDa GHBPs. The data indicate that the GHBPs are immunologically related to the rat membrane GHR, but provide no evidence to support the presence of a hydrophilic tail sequence homologous to that in the rat GHBP.

These studies have identified in guinea pig serum GHBPs that exhibit novel ligand specificity, structural heterogeneity, and an immunological relationship to the rat liver membrane GHR. The identification of serum GHBP and the novel ligand specificity, which is also expressed by the liver membrane GHR, argue against the view that the guinea pig has a defective GHBP.

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