NON-SUPPRESSIBLE INSULIN-LIKE ACTIVITY AND SULPHATION ACTIVITY IN SERUM EXTRACTS OF NORMAL SUBJECTS, ACROMEGALICS AND PITUITARY DWARFS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Non-suppressible insulin-like activity (NSILA) is a term used for a variety of substances in serum, excluding insulin, which promote glucose uptake of adipose tissue and diaphragm in vitro. NSILA-S is a peptide with a molecular weight of 7000 which is soluble in acid ethanol and which has been purified on a large scale from human serum. This study describes a simple chromatographic one step procedure by which NSILA-S can be extracted and quantitatively measured in individual sera. Using Sephadex G-75 equilibrated with 1 m acetic acid, NSILA-S was detected only in one peak containing small molecular peptides. NSILA-S obtained with this one step chromatographic procedure exerted all the effects of purified NSILA-S including sulphation activity on the rat cartilage. All chromatographic fractions with NSILA-S also had sulphation activity. Both, NSILA-S and sulphation activity were increased in acromegalics and decreased in pituitary dwarfs. It is suggested that one molecule in serum is responsible for both activities which are, at least in part, under the control of growth hormone.