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THE STABILITY OF I$sup 131$-INSULIN IN SOLUTION AND ITS USE IN STUDIES OF THE FOREARM UPTAKE OF INSULIN IN MAN

Journal Article · · Guy's Hosp. Rept.
OSTI ID:4051615

Insulin was iodinated with /sup 131/I, and the excess /sup 131/I was removed by an Amberlite IRA-400 ion-exchange resin column in the chloride phase. This method gives, using 10 mC thiosulfate-free /sup 131/iodide with 6 mg insulin, specific activities of 0.2--0.7 mC /sup 131/I/mg protein. This represents much less than 0.1 atom I/molecule of insulin. In undiluted solution (1 mg/ml), insulin was not detectably removed by the column, but more dilute (1: 25 and 1: 250) solutions were considerably depleted of protein-bound counts. These counts could not be washed off the column by buffer or by dilute protein solutions. Paper electrophoresis showed that over 90% of the radioactivity migrated with insulin. The stability of a 1 mg/ml iodoinsulin solution at 4 deg C in glycine buffer at pH 9 was studied, to assess how soon before use it need be prepared. Samples of iodoinsulin were kept in the refrigerator for varying times of up to six weeks. Storage for a period as short as 30 or 54 hr resulted in the appearance of large percertages of nortrichloroacetic acid-precipitable material with altered electrophoretic mobility. By use of butanol/acetic acid chromatography on specimens of monthold insulin, the altered material was shown to correspond neither with iodide, monoiodotyrosine, diiodotyrosine, nor with a ninhydrin-staining band of breakdown products. The trichloroacetic acid supernatant contained counts only precipitated very slowly by certrifugation at 3000 rpm for 1 hr, in contrast to the quick precipitation on centrifugation of insulin-bound /sup 131/I after trichloroacetic acid treatment. Presumably, therefore, these breakdown products represert medium-sized iodopeptides. Protein, either albumin or plasma protein, added to the insulin solution inhibited the breakdown but because of the intra-arterial studies to be performed, the addition of albumin or other foreign protein was avoided. Three samples, frozen-dried, were found to contain 91, 94, and 95% insulin at the end of 6 weeks. This suggested that insulin was being damaged by ionized water rather than direct irradiation damage. This was supported by the even more rapid disirtegration of the insulin on keeping, when the forearm uptake of insulin after intra-arterial injection in humans showed the erroneous results obtained when aged, degraded samples of insulin-/sup 131/I were used. (BBB)

Research Organization:
Guy's Hospital, London
NSA Number:
NSA-18-017436
OSTI ID:
4051615
Journal Information:
Guy's Hosp. Rept., Journal Name: Guy's Hosp. Rept. Vol. Vol: 111
Country of Publication:
Country unknown/Code not available
Language:
English