Summary
Antisera were raised against synthetic peptides derived from the primary amino acid sequence of human chromogranin B. These antisera recognized in one- and two-dimensional immunoblotting a component previously designated as chromogranin B. In human chromaffin granules, the major endogenous processing product of chromogranin B is formed by proteolytic cleavage of the protein near theC-terminus. Immunohistochemical localizations were obtained with antisera against human chromogranins A and B and against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the B sequence. In human tissues, chromogranin B is co-stored with chromogranin A in the adrenal medulla, the anterior pituitary, parafollicular cells of the thyroid, in some cells of the endocrine pancreas and in some enterochromaffin cells, whereas only chromogranin A is found in the parathyroid gland and enterochromaffin cells of the gastric corpus mucosa. In the nervous system, no immunostaining was observed for chromogranin A and only a weak one for chromogranin B in some cells of the spinal cord. However, the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum were strongly positive for chromogranin B.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ANDREW, S. M. & JASANI, B. (1987) An improved method for the inhibition of endogenous peroxidase non-deleterious to lymphocyte surface markers. Application to immunoperoxidase studies on eosinophil-rich tissue preparations.Histochem. J. 19, 426–30.
AVRAMEAS, S. & TERYNCK, T. (1971) Peroxidase labelled antibody and Fab conjugates with enhanced intracellular penetration.Immunochemistry 8, 1175–9.
BENEDUM, U. M., BAEUERLE, P. A., KONECKI, D. S., FRANK, R., POWELL, J., MALLET, J. & HUTTNER, W. B. (1986) The primary structure of bovine chromogranin A: a representative of a class of acidic secretory proteins common to a variety of peptidergic cells.EMBO J. 5, 1495–502.
BENEDUM, U. M., LAMOUROUX, A., KONECKI, D. S., ROSA, P., HILLE, A., BAEUERLE, P. A., FRANK, R., LOTTSPEICH, F., MALLET, J. & HUTTNER, W. B. (1987) The primary structure of human secretogranin I (chromogranin B): comparison with chromogranin A reveals homologous terminal domains and a large intervening variable region.EMBO J. 6, 1203–11.
BURNETTE, W. N. (1981) ‘Western Blotting’: electrophoretic transfer of proteins from sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gels to unmodified nitrocellulose and radiographic detection with antibody and radioiodinated protein A.Anal. Biochem. 112, 195–203.
COHN, D. V., ELTING, J. J., FRICK, M. & ELDE, R. (1984) Selective localization of the parathyroid secretory protein-I/adrenal medulla chromogranin A protein amily in a wide variety of endocrine cells of the rat.Endocrinology 114, 1963–74.
COHN, D. V., ZANGERLE, R., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., CHU, L. L. H., ELTING, J. J., HAMILTON, J. W. & WINKLER, H. (1982) Similarity of secretory protein I from parathyroid gland to chromogranin A from adrenal medulla.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 6056–9.
FALKENSAMMER, G., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R. & WINKLER, H. (1985a) Biogenesis of chromaffin granules: incorporation of sulfate into chromogranin B and into a proteoglycan.J. Neurochem. 45, 1475–80.
FALKENSAMMER, G., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., RICHTER, K. & WINKLER, H. (1985b) Cell-free and cellular synthesis of chromogranin A and B of bovine adrenal medulla.Neuroscience 14, 735–46.
FISCHER-COLBRIE, R. & FRISCHENSCHLAGER, I. (1985) Immunological characterization of secretory proteins of chromaffin granules: chromogranins A, chromogranins B and enkephalin-containing peptides.J. Neurochem. 44, 1854–61.
FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., LASSMANN, H., HAGN, C. & WINKLER, H. (1985) Immunological studies on the distribution of chromogranin A and B in endocrine and nervous tissues.Neuroscience 16, 547–55.
FISCHER-COLBRIE, R. & SCHOBER, M. (1987) Isolation and characterization of chromogranins A, B and C from bovine chromaffin granules and a rat pheochromocytoma.J. Neurochem. 48, 262–70.
HAGN, C., SCHMID, K. W., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R. & WINKLER, H. (1986) Chromogranin A, B, and C in adrenal medulla and endocrine tissues.Lab Invest. 55, 405–11.
HELLE, K. B. (1966) Some chemical and physical properties of the soluble protein fraction of bovine adrenal chromaffin granules.Mol. Pharmacol. 2, 298–310.
HITTMAIR, A. & SCHMID, K. W. (1988) Inhibition of endogenous peroxidase for the immunocytochemical demonstration of intermediate filament proteins (IFP).J. Immunol. Methods,116, 199–205.
HOPWOOD, D. (1968) An immunohistochemical study of the adrenal medulla of the ox. A comparison of antibodies against whole ox chromaffin granules and ox chromogranin A.Histochemie 13, 323–30.
IACANGELO, A., AFFOLTER, H. U., EIDEN, L. E., HERBERT, E. & GRIMES, M. (1986) Bovine chromogranin A: its sequence and the distribution of its messenger RNA in endocrine tissues.Nature 323, 82–6.
IACANGELO, A. L., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., KOLLER, K. J., BROWNSTEIN, M. J. & EIDEN, L. E. (1988a) The sequence of porcine chromogranin A messenger RNA demonstrates that chromogranin A can serve as the precursor for the biologically active hormone, pancreastatin.J. Endocrinol. 122, 2339–41.
IACANGELO, A. L., OKAYAMA, H. & EIDEN, L. E. (1988b) Primary structure of rat chromogranin A and distribution of its mRNA.FEBS Lett. 227, 115–21.
KILPARTICK, L., GAVINE, F., APPS, D. & PHILLIPS, J. (1983) Biosynthetic relationship between the major matrix proteins of adrenal chromaffin granules.FEBS Lett. 164, 383–8.
KONECKI, D. S., BENEDUM, U. M., GERDES, H. H. & HUTTNER, W. B. (1987) The primary structure of human chromogranin A and pancreastatin.J. Biol. Chem. 262, 17026–30.
LASSMAN, H., HAGN, C., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R. & WINKLER, H. (1986) Presence of chromogranin A, B and C in bovine endocrine and nervous tissues: a comparative immunohistochemical study.Histochem. J. 18, 380–6.
LLOYD, R. V., CANO, M., ROSA, P., HILLE, A. & HUTTNER, W. B. (1988) Distribution of chromogranin A and secretogranin I (chromogranin B) in neuroendocrine cells and tumors.Amer. J. Pathol. 130, 296–304.
LLOYD, R. V. & WILSON, B. S. (1983) Specific endocrine tissue marker defined by a monoclonal antibody.Science 222, 628–30.
NOLAN, J. A., TROJANOWSKI, J. Q. & HOGUE-ANGELETTI, R. (1985) Neurons and neuroendocrine cells contain chromogranin: detection of the molecule in normal bovine tissues by immunochemical and immunohistochemical methods.J. Histochem. Cytochem. 33, 791–8.
O'CONNOR, D. T., BURTON, D. & DEFTOS, L. J. (1983) Immunoreactive human chromogranin A in diverse polypeptide hormone producing human tumors and normal endocrine tissues.J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 57, 1084–6.
RIEKER, S., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., EIDEN, L. & WINKLER, H. (1988) Phylogenetic distribution of peptides related to chromogranins A and B.J. Neurochem. 50, 1066–73.
RINDI, G., BUFFA, R., SESSA, F., TORTORA, O. & SOLCIA, E. (1986) Chromogranin A, B and C immunoreactivities of mammalian endocrine cells. Distribution, distinction from co-stored hormones/prohormones and relationship with the argyrophil component of secretory granules.Histochemistry 85, 19–28.
ROSA, P., HILLE, A., LEE, R. W. H., ZANINI, A., DE CAMILLI, P. & HUTTNER, W. B. (1985) Secretogranins I and II: two tryosine-sulfated secretory proteins common to a variety of cells secreting peptides by the regulated pathway.J. Cell Biol. 101, 1999–2011.
RUNDLE, S., SOMOGYI, P., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., HAGN, C., WINKLER, H. & CHUBB, I. W. (1986) Chromogranin A, B and C: immunohistochemical localization in ovine pituitary and the relationship with hormone-containing cells.Reg. Peptides 16, 217–33.
SCHOBER, M., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., SCHMID, K. W., BUSSOLATI, G., O'CONNOR, D. T. & WINKLER, H. (1987) Comparison of chromogranins A, B, and secretogranin II in human adrenal medulla and pheochromocytoma.Lab. Invest. 57, 385–91.
SMITH, A. D. & WINKLER, H. (1967) Purification and properties of an acidic protein from chromaffin granules of bovine adrenal medulla.Biochem. J. 103, 483–92.
SMITH, W. D. & KIRSHNER, N. (1967) A specific soluble protein from the catecholamine storage vesicles of bovine adrenal medulla. Purification and chemical characterization.Mol. Pharmacol. 3, 52–62.
SOMOGYI, P., HODGSON, A. J., DE POTTER, R. W., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., SCHOBER, M., WINKLER, H. & CHUBB, I. W. (1984) Chromogranin immunoreactivity in the central nervous system: immunochemical characterization, distribution and relationship to catecholamine and enkephalin pathways.Brain Res. Rev. 8, 193–230.
UDENFRIEND, S. & KILPATRICK, D. L. (1983) Biochemistry of the enkephalins and enkephalin-containing peptides.Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 221, 309–23.
WEILER, R., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., SCHMID, K. W., FEICHTINGER, H., BUSSOLATI, G., GRIMELIUS, L., KRISCH, K., KERL, H., O'CONNOR, D. & WINKLER, H. (1988) Immunological studies on the occurrence and properties of chromogranin A and B and secretogranin II in endocrine tumors.Amer. J. Surg. Pathol. 12, 877–84.
WILSON, B. S. & LLOYD, R. V. (1984) Detection of chromogranin in neuroendocrine cells with a monoclonal antibody.Amer. J. Pathol. 115, 458–68.
WOHLFARTER, T., FISCHER-COLBRIE, R., HOGUE-ANGELETTI, R., EIDEN, L. E. & WINKLER, H. (1988) Processing of chromogranin A within chromaffin granules starts atC- andN-terminal cleavage sites.FEBS Lett. 231, 67–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schmid, K.W., Weiler, R., Xu, R.W. et al. An immunological study on chromogranin A and B in human endocrine and nervous tissues. Histochem J 21, 365–372 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01798500
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01798500