Abstract
Chromatography under acid dissociating conditions in conjunction with radioimmunoassay has been employed to investigate the nature of peptides related to opiocortin in human cerebrospinal fluid. Samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected for chromatography from 15 patients prior to air encephalography. 2 patients had pituitary dependent Cushing’s disease, 3 non-endocrine neurological disease and 10 non-ACTH related pituitary disease. The column fractions were assayed for N- and C-terminal β-lipotropin, N-termi’nal ACTH and γ-MSH immunoreactivity. Elution profiles obtained from chromatography on Sephadex G-50 demonstrated peaks of immunoreactivity corresponding to the elution positions of synthetic human β-endorphin, highly purified β-lipotropin and highly purified γ-lipotropin in all CSF samples. A peak of a large molecular weight material with N and C terminal β-lipotropin immunoreactivity was also detected. Chromatography of CSF on Sephadex G-75 showed this large molecular weight peak to be comprised of peptides eluting in the positions of a 31K molecular weight marker with β-lipotropin and ACTH immunoreactivity and a 16K molecular weight marker with γ-MSH immunoreactivity. This suggests the presence of the common precursor to ACTH and LPH in the CSF.