Immunoreactivity to the amphibian peptide bombesin was found in instant nonfat dry milk (ca. 0.7 ng/ml) and in the whey of whole or skim bovine milk (ca. 1.2 ng/ml) even after ultracentrifugation. The soluble immunoreactivity was associated with a peptide exhibiting the following characteristics: (i) parallel displacement in an immunoassay using an antiserum recognizing bombesin amino acid residues 5-8; (ii) separation from both gastrin-releasing peptide and amphibian bombesin by gel filtration-the approximate Mr was 3,200; (iii) denaturation in urea, reduction by dithiothreitol, and acetylation by iodoacetamide had no effect on its elution profile by gel-filtration chromatography and the aggregation of added bombesin to milk proteins or peptides was not observed; (iv) reversed-phase HPLC separated milk immunoreactivity from gastrin-releasing peptide and bombesin; (v) digestion by trypsin yielded a smaller immunoreactive peptide fragment, whereas nearly all immunoreactivity was lost by treatment with a-chymotrypsin; and (vi) the level of immunoreactivity was unaffected by boiling. These data show that milk is an exogenous source of bombesin-like immunoreactivity,, which may account for the increase of gastric acid and gastrointestinal hormone levels after the consumption of milk.Immunoreactivity to bombesin, an amphibian tetradecapeptide (1), is distributed throughout mammalian tissues (2-5). Bombesin administered through intraperitoneal or intracisternal injection or intravenous infusion elicits diverse physiological effects in a variety of animal species, including humans (6-12). These effects include hypertension (1, 6, 13, 14), satiety (for review, see ref. 15), change in sugar metabolism (16, 17), hypothermia (18), modulation of the level of many gastrointestinal-associated peptide hormones (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24), and increase of gastric acid secretion (7,10,13,14,19,20). Bombesin also releases both gastrin and gastric acid from isolated fundic mucosa (25) and acts as a spasmogen in isolated smooth muscle preparations (1,6,13,14,26
MATERIALS AND METHODSMilk. Pasteurized skim and whole milk from several different local dairies were purchased 5-7 days before the expiration date. Instant nonfat dry milk was the product of several major companies and reconstituted according to the manu- [Tyr8]Bombesin and GRP were iodinated every 4-6 weeks as described (43). The production of the antiserum to bombesin has been described (44). Optimum RIA conditions, which were systematically determined, are as follows: 0.1 M sodium cacodylate, pH 5.6/bovine serum albumin (5 mg/ml)/125I-labeled [Tyr8]bombesin (or GRP) (2,500 cpm)/antiserum (final dilution, 1:4,000)/standard or test solution in a total vol of 100 ,ul. Nonionic (Triton X-100, Nonidet P-40) and ionic (sodium lauryl sulfate) detergents above 0.1% and chaotropic agents (urea, (Fig. 1). Other known peptides, such as physalaemin, neurotensin, and braAbbreviations: RIA, radioimmunoassay; GRP, gastrin-releasing peptide (bombesin-lik...