Locust adipokinetic hormones: carrier-independent transport and differential inactivation at physiological concentrations during rest and flight.

Since concomitant release of structurally related peptide hormones with apparently similar functions seems to be a general concept in endocrinology, we have studied the dynamics of the lifetime of the three known adipokinetic hormones (AKHs) of the migratory locust, which control flight-directed mobilization of carbohydrate and lipid from fat body stores. Although the structure of the first member of the AKHs has been known for 20 years, until now, reliable data on their inactivation and removal from the hemolymph are lacking, because measurement requires AKHs with high specific radioactivity. Employing tritiated AKHs with high specific radioactivity, obtained by catalytic reduction with tritium gas of the dehydroLeu2 analogues of the AKHs synthesized by the solid-phase procedure, studies with physiological doses of as low as 1.0 pmol per locust could be conducted. The AKHs appear to be transported in the hemolymph in their free forms and not associated with a carrier protein, despite their strong hydrophobicity. Application of AKHs in their free form in in vivo and in vitro studies therefore now has been justified. We have studied the degradation of the three AKHs during rest and flight. The first cleavage step by an endopeptidase is crucial, since the resulting degradation products lack any adipokinetic activity. Half-lives for AKH-I, -II and -III were 51, 40, and 5 min, respectively, for rest conditions and 35, 37, and 3 min, respectively, during flight. The rapid and differential degradation of structurally related hormones leads to changes in the ratio in which they are released and therefore will have important consequences for concerted hormone action at the level of the target organ or organs, suggesting that each of the known AKHs may play its own biological role in the overall syndrome of insect flight.