ABSTRACT
The extraction and isolation of peptides from vast quantities of tissues or fluids is still often the sole source of interesting novel material. This chapter summarizes results obtained while using a purification protocol based entirely upon reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and focuses on peptides present in the non-precipitating fraction of a neutral salt precipitation procedure. Throughout the years, the laboratory has relied heavily on an approach in order to purify or analyze various novel peptides or proteins. In particular, a program devoted many years ago to the purification of biologically active human growth hormone (hGH) from frozen pituitary glands obtained at autopsy, was initiated. This endeavor provided us with some challenging problems related to the amount of material, the complexity in terms of peptides present, the conservation of the biological activity of the isolated hGH, and the desire to recover as much as possible the secondary products which might be related to the studies on pro-opiomelanocortin.
