BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE PEPTIDES FROM THE PERICARDIAL ORGANS OF THE CRAB CANCER BOREALIS

Abstract

An analysis of the properties of the cardio-stimulator material extracted from the neurosecretory pericardial organs. The active material was inactivated by trypsin and chymotrypsin, and appeared to be correlated with ninnydrin staining. The isoelectric point, determined by paper electrophoresis, is near pH 3. Paper chromatog-raphy revealed 2 active components, and acid hydrolysis showed these to be peptides which differed in composition by only a small number of amino acid residues. The peptides contained proportionally more glutaminyl residues than positively charged residue (lysine or arginine), one other negatively charged residue, and a small number of neutral amino acids.