Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography of adrenocorticotropin 1-39 and its fragments in the native and oxidized forms.

This paper reports HPLC separations of human ACTH 1-39 and its fragments (ACTH 1-10, 4-10, 11-24) making use of original gradient systems. Both H2O2 or chloramine T were demonstrated to oxidize the Met 4 present in ACTH 1-39, 1-10, and 4-10; the oxidized forms were HPLC separated from the corresponding native polypeptides, indicating that this method is suitable for the identification in biological fluid of ACTH, its fragment and their methionine-sulphoxide derivatives with possible relevance to the problem of ageing and inactivation of active polypeptide.