Thiol-protein disulfide oxidoreductase and peptidase activities in insulinoma tissue.

An islet cell tumor, characterized by proinsulin level significantly elevated above normal human pancreas, has been found to contain insulin- and glucagon-degrading activity. Examination by chromatography on Sephadex G-75 of the degradation products formed from insulin showed A chain, and B chain rich-A chain aggregate as previously found with rat pancreatic islets. There was, however, little conversion of A chain to low molecular weight components indicating that insulinoma peptidase that has been found to degrade glucagon at about pH 6.8 degraded that A chain to a markedly lower rate. In contrast to the insulin-degrading activity, which was activated by glutathione in the presence of EDTA, the peptidase activity was not affected by the thiol compound. The activity of the peptidase was markedly inhibited by chelating agents, i.e., EDTA and o-phenanthroline, whereas chymotrypsin and trypsin inhibitors, i.e., TOS-PheCH2Cl, TOS-LysCH2Cl, soybean and pancreas trypsin inhibitor were found to have no effect.