Pituitary Growth Hormone from the Turtle and Duck: Purification and Immunochemical Studies 1

Abstract

Summary

Turtle and duck pituitaries were fractionated and preparations of purified growth hormone (GH) were obtained. Phenylalanine and leucine are present as N-terminal residues in both species of GH and the amino acid composition of both is similar. Studies by agar-gel diffusion and radioimmunoassay employing antirat GH serum and antiturtle GH serum showed that the purified GHs were identical to the immunoreactive material in pituitary extracts.

We are grateful to Miss Eleanor Lasky, Miss Laurie Hidekawa, and Mr. Dan Viele for their skilled technical assistance. We thank Dr. Stanley Ellis for making available the highly purified rat and rabbit GH and rat prolactin preparations; the Endocrinology Study Section of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, for supplying us with ovine prolactin. Some of the turtle pituitaries were made available to us by Dr. Paul Licht. We are indebted to Doctors Selna Kaplan and Melvin Grumbach of the Department of Pediatrics for the iodinations of rat GH.