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. 1984 May;81(9):2847–2849. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.9.2847

Contrasting biological activities of thymopoietin and splenin, two closely related polypeptide products of thymus and spleen.

T Audhya, M P Scheid, G Goldstein
PMCID: PMC345168  PMID: 6585832

Abstract

Thymopoietin, a 49 amino acid polypeptide hormone of the thymus discovered by its effect on neuromuscular transmission, was later shown to induce T-cell differentiation and to affect immunoregulatory balance. A radioimmunoassay for thymopoietin revealed a crossreaction with a product found in spleen and lymph node but not other tissues. This product, named splenin, differs from thymopoietin only in position 34, aspartic acid for bovine thymopoietin and glutamic acid for bovine splenin. Synthetic pentapeptides corresponding to residues 32-36, called thymopentin and splenopentin, reproduce biological activities of thymopoietin and splenin, respectively. Thus thymopoietin and thymopentin affect neuromuscular transmission and induce the phenotypic differentiation of T precursor cells in vitro while inhibiting phenotypic differentiation of B cells. Splenin and splenopentin, in contrast, do not affect neuromuscular transmission, and they induce both T- and B-cell precursors.

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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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