Human carboxypeptidase B. II. Purification of the enzyme from pancreatic tissue and comparison with the enzymes present in pancreatic secretion.

Carboxypeptidase B (peptidyl-L-lysine (-L-arginine) hydrolase, EC 3.4.12.3) has been isolated and purified to apparent homogeneity from activated extracts of human pancreas tissue. The purified enzyme has been shown to be a single polypeptide of 34 000 daltons. In this respect the enzyme from pancreatic tissue, designated native human carboxypeptidase B, differs from the two forms present in human pancreatic juice (fractions I and II), both of which are composed of two polypeptides of approximately 24 000 and 9000 daltons. In addition, the three forms of human carboxypeptidase B differ in electrophoretic mobility in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and in chromatographic behavior on DEAE-cellulose. Two immunological methods, micro-complement fixation and radioimmunoassay, have shown a high degree of structural similarity between the three forms of human carboxypeptidase B. Micro-complement fixation experiments indicate that the amino acid sequences of the three enzymes differ by less than one percent. In vitro digestion studies have indicated that trypsin alone is sufficient to convert native carboxypeptidase B to carboxypeptidase B II. However, no combination of trypsin, chymotrypsin, and/or elastase was capable of converting native carboxypeptidase B to carboxypeptidase B I in vitro.