SOLUBILIZATION AND PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THYROID MEMBRANE TSH BINDING PROTEINS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Crude plasma membranes obtained from bovine thyroids were found to possess one class of high affinity, low capacity binding sites for TSH with average association constant (Ka) of 1.301 × 109 m−1 and maximal capacity 8.76 × 10−10 m/mg of protein. Treatment of crude membranes fraction with 0.1 % Triton X-100 and the subsequent sonication in ultrasonic disintegrator resulted in solubilization of membranes proteins with mean recovery of 40.0 ± 6.2 %. Soluble proteins retained the property to bind [125I]TSH, but the binding of the hormone was decreased. The removal of the detergent from the solubilizate by gel filtration on Sephadex LH-20 increased the binding of TSH well above that demonstrated for crude thyroid membranes. The chromatography of soluble proteins on Ultrogel AcA-44 revealed the presence of two TSH binding proteins, one with the molecular weight (m.w.) above 130 000 daltons and the other with the m.w. approximately 30 000 daltons. The electrofocusing of solubilizate on Ampholine resulted in two protein peaks, one at pH 4.0–4.1 and the other at pH 4.4–4.6. The latter peak was shown to bind [125I]TSH specifically. The present results have confirmed the heterogeneous character of solubilized TSH receptor preparation and have shown that the hormone binding sites belong to acid proteins.