Rabbit brain endo-oligopeptidase B inactivates angiotensin I (Asp-Arg-Val-Tyr-Ile-His-Pro-Phe-His-Leu) and angiotensin II (Asp-Arg-Val-Tyr-Ile-His-Pro-Phe) by hydrolysis of the Pro7-Phe8 peptide bond. The site of hydrolysis was determined in preparative and analytical experiments in which both products were recovered in a molar ratio of 1:1, and the sum of the products plus unhydrolyzed substrate accounted for the starting material. The enzyme has a Km of 6.3 x 10(-5) M for angiotensin II at pH 8.3 and is activated 30-fold with 4.8 mM dithiothreitol. BPP9a ( less than Gln-Trp-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gln-Ile-Pro-Pro, SQ 20,881) inhibits the inactivation of angiotensin II with an I50 of 5 x 10(-5) M. BPP5a (less than Gln-Lys-Trp-Ala-Pro, SQ 20,475) is less active and D-3-mercapto-2-methylpropanoyl-L-proline (captopril, SQ 14,225) has essentially no activity. These endo-oligopeptidase B in angiotensin I and II metabolism remains to be established.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMedDate not supplied

An improved fluorometric assay of rat serum and plasma converting enzyme.

The most sensitive nonradiometric routine assay for angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity uses fluorometry to detect His-Leu released from Hip-His-Leu. Our results indicate that, in contrast to human serum, rat serum and plasma contain large and variable amounts of dipeptidase activity that lead to a subestimation of the ACE activity measured in 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 8.3, containing 0.3 M NaCl, the most commonly used assay for human serum and tissue ACE. We describe and validate an assay for 1 to 10 microL rat and human serum or plasma using 5 mM Hip-His-Leu in 500 microL of 0.4 M sodium borate buffer, pH 8.3, containing 0.9 M NaC1 at 37 degrees C that reduced the subestimation error to less than or equal to 3% (rat serum) and less than or equal to 0.1% (human serum) and increased the ACE activity twofold to threefold. The Km and Vmax are reported for rat serum ACE (Hip-His-Leu) and dipeptidase (His-Leu) in borate buffer and phosphate buffer. Rat serum ACE hydrolysis of Hip-His-Leu measured by fluorometry correlated (r = 0.99, p less than 0.05) with the hydrolysis of angiotensin I measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. A direct method based on amino acid analysis is described for evaluating the dipeptidase error of complex mixtures such as tissue extracts and other physiological fluids. We have found that the assay can be used to measure ACE activity in 25 samples (in duplicate) in 2 hours with small intraassay (2.2%) and interassay (3.9%) coefficients of variation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Angiotensin I↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Increased levels of new spasmogenic substances released by trypsin from plasma of hypertensive rats.

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the participation of the kallikrein-kinin system in the normalization of blood pressure after release of the clip in one-kidney, one clip hypertensive rats ( 1K1C ). Kininogen was determined before and after unclipping by tryptic digestion of denatured rat plasma, and spasmogenic activity was measured with isolated guinea pig ileum. In contrast to human plasma for which bradykinin (BK) is the only trypsin-releasable spasmogenic substance ( TRSS ), rat plasma contains non-BK TRSS (Fractions P1 and P2) as well as BK. Fractions P1 and P2 were separated from BK by SP-Sephadex chromatography. An increase of total TRSS was demonstrated 60 days after clipping and reached a maximum at approximately Day 75, which was two times that of the normotensive controls (NC). The level of total TRSS did not change after unclipping . The increased level of TRSS in the hypertensive state confirmed the observations of other investigators who reported increased kininogen levels but who could not distinguish between BK and non-BK TRSS because bioassays were performed without prior chromatographic separation of the spasmogenic activities. Fractions P1 and P2 were present in the TRSS of both 1K1C and NC plasma, but were two to six times higher in 1K1C and thus probably accounted quantitatively for the increased TRSS in 1K1C . The data suggest that in the hypertensive state there is an alteration in the relative amounts of some plasma proteins that contain non-BK TRSS within their amino acid sequences. Fractions P1 and P2 also contain potentiating peptides and have not yet been purified to homogeneity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗