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H S Tager

Publications and source records attributed to H S Tager.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Biosynthesis of pancreatic polypeptide. Identification of a precursor and a co-synthesized product.

Pseudoislets obtained by gyrotational incubation of purified endocrine cells from canine duodenal pancreas were incubated with [3H]leucine and [35S]methionine to study the biosynthesis of pancreatic polypeptide. Gel filtration of islet extracts demonstrated two major radiolabeled peptides which were immunoprecipitable with antisera against pancreatic polypeptide. One had a molecular weight similar to that of pancreatic polypeptide (4300), whereas the other had an apparent molecular weight of about 9000. On polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the larger labeled peptide co-migrated with a large immunoreactive form of pancreatic polypeptide which reacts in immunoassays directed towards the NH2-terminal region of pancreatic polypeptide, but not in an assay depending on the COOH-terminal tyrosine amide. Sequential Edman degradation of both immunoprecipitable labeled peptides identified [3H]leucine at position 3 and [35S]methionine at position 17, positions which align with the leucine and methionine residues in the NH2-terminal sequence of pancreatic polypeptide. In pulse-chase labeling experiments, the larger peptide appeared early and disappeared rapidly, whereas pancreatic polypeptide and an additional smaller peptide appeared later and reached a plateau as th precursor was processed. That both pancreatic polypeptide and the smaller peptide arise from the same precursor was further supported by electrophoretic mapping of the tryptic fragments from the three peptides. We conclude that pancreatic polypeptide and a peptide with a molecular weight of 2500 to 3000 are co-synthesized from a larger precursor and that the pancreatic polypeptide sequence is located at the far NH2-terminal end of the precursor form.

Animals↗

Formation of biologically active peptides.

Many small biologicaly active peptides are derived from larger precursor forms which fulfil a variety of roles in the synthesis, segregation and intracellular migration of secretory products. Limited proteolysis may occur at several stages during this process, giving rise to products that are either degraded (e.g. the prepeptides) or discharged coordinately from their cells of origin during exocytosis (e.g. insulin and C-peptide). Molecular defects have recently been found to occur at cleavage sites in proinsulin as well as in other proproteins, and these point mutations may, in some instances, be responsible for familial metabolic disorders. The nature and cell specificity of the proteolytic enzymes involved in the conversion of the various precursor forms remains unresolved. Recent studies in our laboratory have led to the identification of precursors of glucagon and somatostatin in rat islets of Langerhans. Analysis of tryptic maps of these precursors has shown that a trypsin-like enzyme would be sufficient to cleave the C-terminally located somatostatin sequence from its precursor (relative molecular mass 12,500), but that both trypsin-like and carboxypeptidase B-like enzymes would be necessary to cleave the internal glucagon sequence from its prohormone (relative molecular mass 18,000). Molecular cloning techniques have provided valuable new approaches to analysing the structures of a variety of precursor forms, including those for insulin, gastrin, growth hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone and the endorphins, and in the future will undoubtedly shed more light on the structures of their chromosomal genes, the mechanisms regulating their expression, and their evolutionary origins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Phosphorylation of rat hepatic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase and pyruvate kinase.

Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase from rat liver was phosphorylated with cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase and [gamma-32P]ATP. Brief exposure of the 32P-labeled enzyme to trypsin removed all radioactivity from the enzyme core and produced a single-labeled peptide. The partial sequence of the 17-amino acid peptide was found to be Ser-Arg-Pro-Ser(P)-Leu-Pro-Leu-Pro-(Ser2, Glx2, Pro2, Leu, Arg2). The kinetics of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase-catalyzed phosphorylation of native fructose bisphosphatase were compared with those of rat liver type L pyruvate kinase where the sequence around the phosphoserine is known (Arg-Arg-Ala-Ser(P)-Val; Hjelmquist, G., Anderson, J., Edlund, B., and Engstrom, L. (1974) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 61, 559-563). The Km for pyruvate kinase (17 microM) was less than that for fructose bisphosphatase (58 microM); the Vmax was about 3-fold greater with pyruvate kinase as substrate. The relationship between the rates of phosphorylation of these native substrates and the amino acid sequences surrounding the phosphorylated sites is discussed.

Amino Acids↗

Diabetes due to secretion of an abnormal insulin.

A 51-year-old, nonobese man with diabetes mellitus had marked hyperinsulinemia (70 to 120 muU per milliliter; 502 to 860 pmol per liter) and fasting hyperglycemia (140 to 170 mg per 100 ml; 7.8 to 9.4 mmol per liter). Plasma proinsulin, glucagon, growth hormone, and cortisol levels were normal; insulin antibodies and insulin-receptor antibodies were not detected. The patient showed relatively normal insulin sensitivity, and insulin receptors on circulating monocytes were within the normal range. Insulin from the patient's serum bound to IM-9 lymphocytes and rat adipocytes approximately 40 per cent as well as insulin standards. Its biologic activity on rat adipocytes averaged 15 per cent of that expected from its immunologic concentration. The impaired biologic activity of this patient's circulating insulin was probably due to a structural abnormality. Subsequent studies of the patient's insulin (fortuitously obtained from his pancreas during a laparotomy for a pancreatic cyst) have confirmed this conclusion. (N Engl J Med 302:129-135, 1980).

Blood Glucose↗

Identification of prosomatostatin in pancreatic islets.

A 12.5-kilodalton protein not related to insulin or glucagon was detected in pulse-chase-labeled rat islets of Langerhans. Although this protein reacted poorly with various somatostatin antisera, analysis of two-dimensional peptide maps showed that it contains all of the tryptic fragments of somatostatin, which is located at its COOH terminus. Proteolytic conversion of the putative prosomatostatin, which took place parallel to the processing of proinsulin and proglucagon in pulse-chase experiments, coincided with the appearance of newly synthesized somatostatin and proceeded without the apparent involvement of major intermediate forms.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Processing mechanisms in the biosynthesis of proteins.

Limited proteolysis is a widely occurring mechanism in protein biosynthesis. Protein precursors can be classified according to their functions, localization within cell compartments, and enzymic cleavage mechanisms. The presecretory proteins represent an important class of very rapidly turning over precursors which play an early role in the sequestration of secretory products and whose cleavage appears to be intimately associated with structures formed at the ribosome-membrane junction during protein synthesis. A model is proposed which predicts that the prepeptide forms a beta-pleated sheet structure with other components of the membrane which results in the transfer of a loop of peptide across the microsomal membrane. Proinsulin is representative of the general class of proproteins that are processed post-translationally within their secretory cells either during the formation and maturation of secretory granules (peptides hormones and neurotransmitters, serum albumins) or during the assembly of macromolecular structures (virus capsules, membrane-associated enzyme complexes). The former group are cleaved by Golgi-associated proteases having tryptic and carboxypeptidase B-like specificity. Some precursors are secreted as such and processed extracellularly either in the circulation or at special sites (procollagens, zymogens, provenoms, vitellogenins).

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Identification and processing of proglucagon in pancreatic islets.

Immunoprecipitation and tryptic peptide analysis of newly synthesized proteins from rat islets have identified an 18,000 molecular weight (MW) protein as proglucagon. Conversion of this precursor was kinetically similar to the conversion of proinsulin and resulted in the formation of both pancreatic glucagon and a 10,000-MW protein lacking this hormonal sequence.

Animals↗

High titer glucagon antisera.

Antibody titers in rabbits immunized with glucagon conjugated to albumin using difluorodinitrobenzene rose rapidly. Under conditions of immunoassay, less than 2 nl of serum from two of four animals and approximately 4 nl from the other two was required to bind 50% of the 10 pg of [125I]iodoglucagon 100 days after immunization. The dissociation constants of the two higher titer antisera for glucagon were approximately 1 x 10(-10)M, and their binding capacities for the hormone, about 50 mug/ml. Competitive binding assays showed that neither of these antisera cross-reacts with the glucagon-like, immunoreactive peptides extracted from intestine to greater than 2.5%. In contrast, hens produced antisera which were reactive with the intestinal material and which bound only 0.3 mug of glucagon per ml. There were no consistent differences, however, in the abilities of specific and non-specific antisera to react with selected fragments of pancreatic glucagon.

Animals↗

Glucagon-like and insulin-like hormones of the insect neurosecretory system.

Aqueous extracts of corpus cardiacum-corpus allatum complexes of the adult tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta produced both glycogenolysis and hypoglycaemia when injected into the larval form of the same species. Application of specific radioimmuno assays to similar extracts showed also that these gland complexes contain both glucagon-like and insulin-like peptides. Further, the partially purified immunoreactive peptides had the expected biological activities. The former decreased the glycogen content of the fatbody and the latter the circulating trehalose levels in recipient animals. These results suggest the existence of hormones in these invertebrates having both biological and structural similarities to vertebrate insulin and glucagon.

Animals↗

Biosynthesis of insulin and glucagon: a view of the current state of the art.

It is now well established that insulin biosynthesis proceeds through a precursor molecule, proinsulin. This single polypeptide chain form has been identified as a ribosomal product in the microsomal fraction from islet tissues. The newly synthesized peptide chain, after folding and thiol oxidation, is transferred to the Golgi apparatus where it begins to undergo proteolytic processing to insulin and packaging into secretory granules. The secretion from the cells of significant amounts of newly synthesized material by exocytosis begins only one hour or more after biosynthesis and this process is regulated by several factors, including glucose. Foci of current attention discussed in this paper include (1) the possible existence of larger precursor forms than proinsulin, especially short-lived biosynthetic transients with extended NH2-termini analogous to the recently described immunoglobulin L chain and proparathyroid hormone precursors; (2) the large-scale production of insulin by chemical or genetic engineering approaches; (3) isolation of beta-cell plasma membranes; (4) regulatory mechanisms for the biosynthesis and secretion of insulin, the possible role of mRNA modification in this process, and effects of somatostatin on insulin biosynthesis and secretion; (5) studies on the secretion, metabolism and clinical usefulness of the proinsulin C-peptide; (6) finally, the biosynthesis of glucagon and other peptide hormones and the general significance of precursor forms.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗