Novel active peptides from bovine brain and bone marrow

A novel system of peptidergic regulation

“…Since 1993 a large number of endogenous fragments of functional proteins have been isolated and the first results of systematic structural studies of components of low molecular fractions of tissue extracts have been obtained. Chromatographic analysis of the components of extracts of bovine [14, 15]and rat [16, 17]brain, human cerebellum [17, 18], bovine bone marrow [14]as well as the lysate and the supernatant of primary culture of human erythrocytes [6, 19]demonstrated that these sources contain a panel of compounds. The number of substances corresponding to the chromatographic peaks, distinguishable by means of computer analysis of the elution profiles, varies within the 200–800 range, depending on the biological source.…”

“…the peptides belonging to the 32–40 site of β‐globin, vary significantly in different biological tissues and fluids. The total level of hemorphins ranges from 100–500 nM/g of tissue in the rat heart and lung extracts [22]to 0.1–1 nM/g of tissue or less in bovine bone marrow [14], rat spleen [22]or blood plasma [25]. Analogously, the content of neokyotorphin in rat lung tissue is 10–15‐fold higher than in the rat brain [21].…”

“…Neokyotorphin was shown to terminate the hibernation of ground squirrels and to enhance the inward potential‐dependent Ca 2+ current in cardiac myocytes of frog [27]. A number of hemoglobin fragments display hemopoietic activity [14]. All these data provided a critical mass for formulating the concept considering two patterns of peptide‐mediated regulation.…”

“…Alterations in content of long (more than 25 amino acid residues in length) hemoglobin fragments were detected in cerebellum of patients with Alzheimer's disease [17, 18]and hippocampus of rats subjected to induced brain ischemia [17]. Alterations of the level of myelin basic protein fragments were shown to accompany several CNS pathologies of newborn children [14]. The composition and the content of components of tissue‐specific peptide pools should be considered an important characteristic of the state of the tissue.…”

“…Since hemoglobin‐derived peptides are the largest group of protein fragments found in all tissue extracts studied so far, comprising 30–90% of the total number of sequenced protein fragments [6, 14–18], the patterns of endogenous hemoglobin fragmentation could be outlined in some detail. Hemoglobin degradation inside the erythrocytes seems to proceed in several consecutive steps: at the first stage α‐ and β‐chains of hemoglobin are cleaved in the middle segment giving rise to peptides 60–80 amino acid residues in length.…”