Senaratne Lasika S, Mendis Eresha, Kim Se-Kwon
Department of Chemistry, Pukyong National University, Busan 608-737, Republic of Korea.
Life Sci. 2006 Sep 27;79(18):1756-63. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2006.06.015. Epub 2006 Jun 16.
From a brain extract of the catadromous fish, striped mullet (Mugil cephalus), two visceral excitatory neuropeptides (Mvp-1 and Mvp-2) were isolated by means of reversed phase chromatography together with bioassay on fish hindgut. The primary structure of Mvp-1 was elucidated to be SGPAGVLamide by ESI-Q-TOF mass spectrometry. The threshold concentration of Mvp-1 that changes spontaneous contraction of mullet hindgut was between 10(-9) and 10(-8) M. In addition, Mvp-1 was found to exert excitatory activities on some other smooth muscle segments (oviduct and esophagus) of mullet but it did not show any effect on body wall muscle strips. Therefore, the present study suggests that Mvp-1 and Mvp-2 peptides act as factors that control visceral contractions of mullet gastrointestinal tract.
