Endocrine Abstracts

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is endoproteolysed by prohormone convertase-1 (PC1) to ACTH within the secretory pathway in pituitary cells, where the regulation of ACTH release is essential for mediating the stress response. However POMC is present in the human circulation, indicating that not all POMC is processed. This suggests that regulation of trafficking and processing of POMC are important in determining ACTH release. To investigate this, we analysed steady-state release o...

We have previously shown that the ACTH precursor, POMC, is present in human plasma and is the predominant secreted POMC peptide. This suggests that POMC processing is incomplete in neuroendocrine cells and regulation of the post-translational cleavage pathway is important in controlling secretion of ACTH. We have therefore analysed the dynamics of POMC processing in both AtT20 pituitary adenoma cells and primary rat pituitary cells. In both cases, large quantities of POMC, as ...

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is endoproteolysed to ACTH and alpha MSH which bind to the melanocortin-1 receptor, (MC-1R), and act as principal mediators of human skin pigmentation. In addition there is increasing evidence that alpha MSH has important anti-inflammatory actions in the skin. The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency of processing and the involvement of the different peptides in melanogenesis. To address this question we utilized specific two-site immun...