Solid-phase synthesis of thymosin beta 4: chemical and biological characterization of the synthetic peptide

Biochemistry. 1983 Feb 15;22(4):733-40. doi: 10.1021/bi00273a004.

Abstract

The chemical synthesis of thymosin beta 4 using a solid-phase procedure has been accomplished. The synthetic product was found to be homogeneous on paper electrophoresis at pH 6.5, high-performance liquid chromatography on a reversed-phase column, and isoelectric focusing using polyacrylamide gels. The synthetic material was also shown to be identical with the natural thymosin beta 4 by tryptic peptide mapping, amino acid compositional analyses, and polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing. Biologically, synthetic thymosin beta 4 was found to be as active as the natural compound in a terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase induction assay and in a macrophage migration inhibition assay. The proposed structure of the peptide hormone was thus confirmed by a chemical synthesis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Biological Assay
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
  • Indicators and Reagents
  • Isoelectric Focusing
  • Macrophages / drug effects
  • Macrophages / physiology
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Peptide Fragments / analysis
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Thymosin / analogs & derivatives
  • Thymosin / chemical synthesis*
  • Thymosin / pharmacology
  • Thymus Hormones / chemical synthesis*

Substances

  • Indicators and Reagents
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Thymus Hormones
  • thymosin beta(4)
  • Thymosin