60 YEARS OF POMC: N-terminal POMC peptides and adrenal growth

  1. Andrew B Bicknell
  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, UK
  1. Correspondence should be addressed to A B Bicknell; Email: A.B.Bicknell{at}reading.ac.uk
  1. Figure 1

    Stimulation of rat adrenal cells by various N-POMC peptides. Dispersed rat adrenal cells were incubated for 3 h before the addition of N-POMC(2–59), N-POMC(1–28), N-POMC(1–76) (pro-γ-MSH), or ACTH(1–24) at various concentrations. The cells were incubated for a further 3 h before the addition of 1 μCi of 3H-thymidine. After a further 6 h, the medium was aspirated and 3H-thymidine incorporation determined as a measure of DNA synthesis. Adapted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (Estivariz et al. 1982), copyright (1982).

  2. Figure 2

    Identification of trypsin-like serine proteases expressed in the rat adrenal following unilateral adrenalectomy. Rats underwent either unilateral adrenalectomy or a sham operation and were sacrificed either 6 or 24h postoperation. The RNA from the remaining gland was extracted and used to synthesise cDNA that was subsequently used as a template in the PCR with degenerate oligonucleotides designed around the conserved residues of the active site of the trypsin family of enzymes. PCR products were labelled with 33P during synthesis, separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subsequently cloned and sequenced. Band 1 was identified as tissue plasminogen activator, band 2 as an unknown sequence that we named AsP, and band 3 as adipsin. Reprinted from Cell, Vol 105, Bicknell AB, Lomthaisong K, Woods RJ, Hutchinson EG, Bennett HP, Gladwell RT & Lowry PJ, Characterization of a serine protease that cleaves progamma-melanotropin at the adrenal to stimulate growth, Pages 903–912, Copyright (2001), with permission from Elsevier.

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