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. 1987 Jul;84(13):4465–4469. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.13.4465

Prothymosin alpha in human blood.

C Panneerselvam, A A Haritos, J Caldarella, B L Horecker
PMCID: PMC305110  PMID: 3474615

Abstract

The major cross-reacting peptide in human plasma detected with a radioimmunoassay (RIA) for thymosin alpha 1 was identified as prothymosin alpha, based on its elution properties in gel-filtration chromatography and its amino acid composition after purification by HPLC. A small quantity (less than 10%) of the total cross-reacting material was recovered in fractions corresponding to lower molecular weight thymosin alpha 1-like peptides. The total quantity of cross-reacting material detected in human blood, expressed as thymosin alpha 1 equivalents, was 11-14 pmol/ml (approximately 90% was recovered in the leukocyte fraction, approximately 10% was in the plasma fraction, and 1-2% was in the erythrocyte fraction). The peptide present in leukocytes was also identified as prothymosin alpha. After correction for the 5-times lower molar reactivity of prothymosin alpha in the thymosin alpha 1 RIA employed in these experiments, we estimate that the content of prothymosin alpha in human blood is 55-70 pmol/ml (0.6-0.8 microgram/ml). The relatively small quantities recovered in the erythrocyte and plasma fractions may be attributed to contamination of the former by leukocytes or to leakage from leukocytes into the plasma.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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