Identification and synthesis of an antigenic determinant common to human chorionic somatomammotropin and human growth hormone.

Human chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS) and human growth hormone (hGH), despite their different biological activities, show a remarkable degree of homology in their primary structure, which explains their immunological cross-reactivity. On the basis of the hydrophilicity profiles, we predicted that the sequence 165-174 would correspond to an antigenic determinant common to both hormones. The sequence 165-174 was synthesized in the solid phase and the ability to bind antibodies to hCS was tested by a radioimmunoassay at each step of the synthesis, without detaching the peptide from the resin. We found that the immunological sequence able to bind antibodies to hCS is that corresponding to 167-174. In similar experiments, we showed that the sequence 166-174 is able to bind antibodies to hGH. In the plaque-forming cell test using the synthetic fragment 166-174 bound to sheep red blood cells, we also observed that the ratio between the number of cells forming antibodies to hCS and to the 166-174 peptide was always between 0.45 and 0.73, thus suggesting that the 166-174 peptide represents a major determinant of hCS.