Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic purification and characterization of the adrenocorticotropin/lipotropin precursor and its fragments.

Methods are presented for the effective purification by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of rat adrenocorticotropin/lipotropin (ACTH/LPH) precursor and its two glycosylated forms. Purification of its NH2-terminal segment from human and porcine pituitaries is presented together with microsequencing data confirming the identity of the purified peptides. The effective separation of various native fragments related to ACTH and beta-LPH from sheep pituitaries is presented. A new putative gamma-MSH hormone has been synthesized and purified by reversed-phase HPLC and tryptic peptide mapping performed to establish the identity of the purified peptide.