Interrelationships between the imprinting potential and biological activity of insulin derivatives: studies on Tetrahymena and Chang liver cells.

Insulin dimers deprived of biological activity by linking with suberic acid symmetrically in position B29 or B1 were not able to induce imprinting. Lack of N-terminal phenylalanine or even of five C-terminal amino acids did not interfere with imprinting, regardless of whether or not it was associated with an activity loss. It appears that while hormonal imprinting is closely associated with the hormone's ability to bind to the receptor, it may be related as well as unrelated to the hormone's biological activity. The imprinted Tetrahymena and Chang cells bound the insulin and its derivatives in a similar manner.