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A non-denaturing high-performance size-exclusion chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of the potency of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) in bulk materials. A Spherogel TSK 3000 PW column containing a polymer base packing material with very hydrophilic bonded surface was used in this method. Ammonium hydrogencarbonate buffer pH 9.0, was used as the mobile phase. This method was shown to be non-denaturing by rat mass-gain assay and radioreceptor assay. The optimization for the separation and determination of rbST has been investigated. The method was validated for the determination of rbST in bulk materials. In addition, rbST soluble aggregates formed in the production process due to protein association, used to be found in bulk materials. The behavior of rbST soluble aggregates in ammonium hydrogencarbonate solutions have been studied. The bio-inactive aggregates can be separated by the method developed in this study. The high-low chromatographic technique has been used to estimate rbST soluble aggregates in bulk materials.

Early culture supernatants from hybridomas that were obtained through fusions of mouse myeloma cells with lymphocytes of melanoma-immunized mice were screened for their reactivity with a paraffin-embedded cell block of a melanoma cell line, using a biotin:avidin immunoperoxidase procedure. Eleven monoclonal antibodies were derived that define several new melanoma-associated antigens. The antigens include a neutral glycolipid, gangliosides, membrane-associated proteins, cytosolic proteins, and strongly secreted proteins. These antibodies, which detect antigens that withstand tissue fixation and embedding procedures, were tested for reactivity in fixed cell lines, as well as in melanoma biopsies. These antibodies may provide powerful tools in diagnostic studies of human malignant melanoma biopsy material.

The nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor was characterized by using a new series of anti-receptor monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). These MAbs (i) showed significantly greater reactivity with a melanoma cell line expressing higher levels of NGF receptor, (ii) inhibited the binding of 125I-labeled NGF to its receptor, and (iii) immunoprecipitated both metabolically labeled and 125I-labeled NGF affinity-labeled receptor. These experiments defined the receptor as a 75-kDa cell-surface protein. The NGF receptor was visualized by immunoperoxidase staining in tissue sections of human nevi, melanomas, neurofibromas, a pheochromocytoma, and peripheral nerves. Uniform staining of the cytoplasm suggests that, in addition to cell-surface NGF receptors, there is a population of intracellular receptors.

Adenovirus E1A and c-myc genes are known to be capable of transforming primary rat cells when they occur in combination with either polyoma middle-T or T24 Harvey-ras1 genes. There was a low level of amino acid sequence homology between the nuclear adenovirus-12 (Ad12)E1A protein product (289 amino acids) and the c-myc protein based on optimal alignment and percentage identity. In contrast to others [Ralston R, Bishop JM (1983) Nature 306:803-806], we concluded that this low level of amino acid sequence homology was not significant, since rabies glycoprotein (RGP), which has no transforming function and localizes to the cell surface, had a similar low level of amino acid sequence homology to the c-myc protein. Furthermore, dot-matrix analysis, when used to test the overall level of amino acid sequence homology, showed no significant homology between c-myc and Ad12E1A, E1B, or RGP. Thus, low levels of amino acid sequence homology between two proteins may not be sufficient to predict structural and functional similarities between them reliably, even if the two proteins appear to share a common function.

A highly glycosylated protein with a molecular weight of 30,000 to 60,000 and a protein core of 20,000 daltons has been identified by antimelanoma monoclonal antibodies. The antigenicity of this melanoma-associated glycoprotein (MAG) was not destroyed in fixed paraffin-embedded melanoma tissue, and was present in malignant cells of cutaneous superficial spreading melanomas in skin (31/33) and in half of all metastatic melanomas examined (5/10). The antigen was not expressed by normal melanocytes. The strong reactivity of dysplastic nevi with the anti-MAG antibodies was comparable to that seen in radial growth phase melanoma. Antigen expression was much weaker in compound nevi where reactivity ranged from moderate in the junctional component and the upper dermis to absent at the base of the nevus.

Column plate numbers, N, were measured for 12 different proteins as a function of mobile phase flow-rate in two gel filtration systems (either denaturing or non-denaturing conditions). These data were used to extend a previous model that predicts bandwidths in reversed-phase and ion-exchange chromatography. Restriction of diffusion of large molecules within column packing pores is now defined more precisely, with a single relationship describing this effect for both reversed-phase and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) (and presumably other high-performance liquid chromatography systems). Separations by gel filtration (SEC) are now included in our general model. A total of 17 flow-rate studies were carried out, involving different proteins, columns and/or mobile phase conditions (denaturing or non-denaturing). Comparisons of plate numbers predicted by the model with experimental values were satisfactory in 15 out of 17 cases. The remaining two cases appear to represent "non-well-behaved" systems, where experimental bandwidths were higher than predicted values by more than 20%. Initial attempts at understanding the origin of these non-ideal effects are described.

A general model for describing gradient elution separations of peptides and proteins by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been presented previously. This model has now been modified so that it can be applied to any of the four HPLC methods used for separating biological macromolecules: reversed-phase, ion-exchange, hydrophobic-interaction and size-exclusion chromatography, carried out in either an isocratic or gradient elution mode. The role of sample molecule structure and the particular column used has been further studied, so that previous empirical parameters for different column/sample choices can now be estimated from three physical properties of the sample and the column: sample molecular weight, native vs. denatured sample, column packing pore diameter. This eliminates much of the empiricism of our preceding model, and minimizes the number of experimental runs now required in order to apply the model in practice. The final model has been tested for several hundred runs involving peptides and proteins in the molecular weight range 600-162,000, all four of these HPLC methods, in both isocratic and gradient elution modes, and using data from several different laboratories (including our own). The model is able to predict bandwidth in HPLC separations of proteins and peptides with an accuracy of +/- 17% (1 standard deviation), for the case of "well-behaved" separations. Separations that are not "well-behaved" will give wider bands than predicted by the model.

A melanoma-associated proteoglycan antigen is expressed by primary cutaneous and ocular melanomas, metastatic melanomas, nevus cells, some astrocytomas, and fetal fibroblasts, and it is shed into culture supernatant by both melanoma and nevus cells. The antigen is also expressed by tumor cells in vivo. Melanoma and nevus cells, but not normal melanocytes, were specifically stained by the immunoperoxidase procedure. The proteoglycan antigen, purified by immunoaffinity chromatography using a monoclonal antibody that specifically detects this antigen, was used to immunize rabbits. The resulting serum was tested by sequential immunoprecipitation and found to react with the same population of molecules detected by the anti-proteoglycan monoclonal antibodies. Furthermore, the reactivity patterns of the rabbit serum and of the monoclonal antibodies with a variety of tumor and normal cells were the same. Based on the these data, we conclude that the entire proteoglycan molecule is a melanoma-associated antigen. The monoclonal antibodies and immunoglobulin from the rabbit serum were tested in a double determinant immunoassay for the detection of antigen in a total of 339 sera from patients with various diseases. Elevated levels of circulating proteoglycan antigen were found in 76% of patients with a high metastatic melanoma tumor burden compared to 2% of healthy donors. A fraction (22%) of patients with light tumor burden or nonmelanoma neoplastic disease also had elevated levels of circulating proteoglycan antigen. The source of the antigen for the latter patients may be collagenous connective tissue which, as judged by immunoperoxidase staining, expresses the antigen in both normal and transformed tissues.