Studies on immunoassays of peptide factors. III. Gastrin/iso-1-cytochrome C as immunogen for raising anti-gastrin antisera.

Iso-1-cytochrome c contains in penultimate position of its sequence a cysteine residue which in analogy to the known tertiary structures of cytochromes c should be exposed on the surface of the protein. Its selective reaction with N alpha-maleoyl-beta-alanyl-human-little-gastrin-I-[2-17] led to a well characterized and homogeneous gastrin conjugate to be used as immunogen in rabbits. The antisera raised by this procedure exhibited a degree of specificity for the hormone gastrin parallel to that of the gastrin receptor. This is clearly documented by comparison of the immune crossreactivities of gastrin-peptides of increasing chain length and of fragments corresponding to various regions of the hormone molecule with their biological activity. The immune response provoked in the animals by the use of an homogeneous immunogen was found to be highly reproducible in terms of specificity of the antigastrin antibodies.