Human parathyroid hormone. Immunological characterization of antibodies against a glandular extract and the synthetic amino-terminal fragments 1-12 and 1-34 and their use in the determination of immunoreactive hormone in human sera.

Antibodies to a urea-trichloroacetic acid extract [hPTH-(TCA)] of human parathyroid tumors and to the synthetic NH(2)-terminal fragments of human parathyroid hormone hPTH-(1-12) and -(1-34) were developed in goats to characterize immunochemically various PTH preparations and to estimate immunoreactive PTH (iPTH) in human sera. They were quantitated on the basis of their capacity to bind [(131)I]-hPTH-(1-12), [(131)I]hPTH-(1-34) or [(131)I]bovine PTH (bPTH-(1-84)). The quality of the antibodies was assessed by reference to inhibition of their interaction with labeled peptides by synthetic hPTH comprising 34 NH(2)-terminal amino acid residues or fragments thereof [hPTH-(1-12), -(13-34), -(18-34), -(25-34), -(18-24)] or by the Sephadex G-100-purified full-length peptide hPTH-(1-84) [hPTH-(1-84)G-100]. The synthetic peptides used in this work correspond in their structure to the NH(2)-terminal amino acid sequence 1-34, as elucidated by Brewer and collaborators (1972. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.69: 3583-3588). Inhibition studies were also carried out with bPTH-(1-34) and bPTH-(1-84). Anti-hPTH-(TCA) exhibited specificities directed to determinants in the COOH-terminal and NH(2)-terminal part of hPTH-(1-84) and exhibited cross-reactivity with bPTH-(1-84). Anti-hPTH-(1-34), on the other hand, showed immunological specificities mainly directed to antigenic determinants located in the COOH-terminal half of hPTH-(1-34). In addition, some reactivity with the NH(2)-terminal hPTH-(1-12) and with the extractive full-length peptides of human and bovine origin was observed. Antibodies to hPTH-(1-12) cross-reacted with hPTH-(1-34) and -(1-84)G-100.IPTH WAS RADIOIMMUNOLOGICALLY DETERMINED IN HUMAN SERA BY THE FOLLOWING SYSTEMS: (a) [(131)I]bPTH-(1-84), anti-hPTH-(TCA) and hPTH-(1-84)G-100 as standard; (b) [(131)I]hPTH-(1-34), anti-hPTH-(1-34) and hPTH-(1-34) as standard. With system (a), COOH-terminal fragments of hPTH-(1-84) having a molecular weight of approximately 7,000 were detected, and there was an almost total discrimination of serum iPTH levels in normal and in hyperparathyroid subjects. With system (b), on the other hand, several molecular species of iPTH were detected, including a component larger than hPTH-(1-84) and others similar to hPTH-(1-84) and to a fragment co-eluting with the NH(2)-terminal fragment hPTH-(1-34). When serum iPTH was assayed in system (b), there was a large overlap of iPTH levels in control subjects and in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism.