Freshly collected parotid saliva collected from human donors were shown by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to continuously secrete a group of low-molecular-weight cationic polypeptides. Up to 14 bands could be identified by Coomassie blue staining, and all bands migrated more rapidly than purified human leukemic lysozyme in cationic polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These peptides could be isolated as a group relatively free of other salivary components and recovered in high yields from concentrated parotid saliva by Sephadex G-25 chromatography. In sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis, the histidine-rich polypeptide bands appeared as just two bands migrating at the tracking dye and ahead of insulin chain B. Amino acid analysis of the mixture revealed an average content of at least 48% cationic residues, of which half were histidine. When stained bands were eluted from electrophoretic gels, hydrolyzed, and subjected to amino acid analyses, they were found to be enriched in histidine. There was also a correlation of the electrophoretic mobility with the content of basic amino acids. Sephadex G-25 chromatography is a convenient, simple method for preparing milligram quantities of the histidine-rich polypeptides for chemical and biochemical studies.
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