Isolation and characterization of fragments of reduced and S-carbamidomethylated human growth hormone produced by plasmin digestion. I. Chemistry.

Reduced and S-carbamidomethylated human GH (RCAM-hGH) was digested with human plasmin, yielding a mixture of products. These were partially separated by chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, yielding three major fractions: Da and Db, which were equipotent with native hGH in the weight gain test; and Dc, which was about half as active as hGH. Each of these was further purified by gel filtration, yielding a number of subfractions which were characterized as follows: Da1 is a very stable noncovalent complex of residues 1--134 and 141--191 of RCAM-hGH; Da2 represents residues 20--41; Db1 is very similar to Da1, but appears to have lost one or more amide groups; Db3 represents residues 95--134; Dc2 is a heterogenous fraction containing a further deamidated version of Da1 and Db1 plus a similar complex of residues 42--134 and 141--191, apparently with some carboxyterminal heterogeneity; Dc3, like Db3, represents residues 95--134. The biological activities of these fragments are discussed in the accompanying paper. Earlier work has shown that native hGH, upon digestion with plasmin, is cleaved primarily at residues 134 and 140. It is shown here that when RCAM-hGH is digested with plasmin, in about 87% of the molecules at least one cleavage takes place in addition to those at residues 134 and 140.