AN IMPROVED METHOD OF EXTRACTION AND PURIFICATION OF RELAXIN FROM FRESH WHOLE OVARIES OF THE SOW1

Abstract

RELAXIN, a water-soluble, physiologically active substance of the ovary has been prepared in partly purified form by two different methods. Fevold, Hisaw, and Meyer (1932) extracted fresh sow corpora lutea with acid alcohol and worked up the active material by solution in and precipitation from organic solvents. The activity of the final product, prepared as an iso-electric precipitate at pH 5.4, was 30 units per mg. Using semi-dried, defatted luteal tissue obtained as a by-product from a commercial procedure for the preparation of progestin, Albert, Money, and Zarrow (1946) prepared relaxin with approximately the same order of activity by differential solubility in water, ammonium sulfate solutions and cold dilute alcohol.