Search

Pancreatic stone protein (PSP) is the major organic component of human pancreatic stones. With the use of monoclonal antibody immunoadsorbents, five immunoreactive forms (PSP-S) with close Mr values (14,000-19,000) were isolated from normal pancreatic juice. By CM-Trisacryl M chromatography the lowest-Mr form (PSP-S1) was separated from the others and some of its molecular characteristics were investigated. The Mr of the PSP-S1 polypeptide chain calculated from the amino acid composition was about 16,100. The N-terminal sequences (40 residues) of PSP and PSP-S1 are identical, which suggests that the peptide backbone is the same for both of these polypeptides. The PSP-S1 sequence was determined up to residue 65 and was found to be different from all other known protein sequences.

A CaCO3-crystal-growth inhibitor was isolated from human pancreatic stones by using EDTA demineralization, followed by DEAE-Trisacryl chromatography. The isolated inhibitor was found to be a phosphoglycoprotein with Mr 14017 and having an unusual chemical composition. It is characterized by a high (42%) acidic amino acid content, but lacks methionine and gamma-carboxyglutamic acid. The protein contains 2.65 mol of P/mol of protein, as phosphoserine (2 mol) and phosphothreonine (0.5 mol). Isoelectric focusing of the protein yields one major band corresponding to an isoelectric point of 4.2. Immunochemical quantification of the crystal-growth inhibitor in pure pancreatic juice reveals that it constitutes 14% of the normal exocrine secretion. Our findings demonstrate that this is a novel secretory protein, which has no enzymic activity and which maintains pancreatic juice in a supersaturated state with respect to CaCO3.

Two major proteins have been identified in sodium citrate extracts of bovine pancreatic stones from 15 glands with lithiasis. They were found to have a molecular weight of about 24 000 and were further characterized by a variety of methods, including polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate, isoelectric focusing, two-dimensional electrophoresis, immunodiffusion, immunoelectrophoresis and determination of N-terminal residues. These two immunologically and electrophoretically different proteins were definitely shown to be immunoreactive forms of anionic and cationic trypsinogens, which are normal components of pancreatic juice. However, in contrast with both secretory trypsinogens, the stone proteins displayed an important charge heterogeneity under isoelectric-focusing conditions. A possible role for both secretory trypsinogens in pancreatic lithogenesis is suggested by the reproducibility of the data. Finally, two minor proteins with a lower molecular weight (about 11 000-13 000) have also been found to be present in all extracts, but have not yet been identified.