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Human Macrophage Migration Inhibition Factor: Evidence for Subunit Structure

1979; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 205; Issue: 4403 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.377487

1095-9203

Genus J. Possanza, Marion C. Cohen, Takeshi Yoshida, Stanley Cohen,

Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor

Macrophage migration inhibition factor (MIF) derived from human lymphoid cell lines was found to lose biologic activity on dialysis. Although activity was not recovered in the dialyzate, mixing experiments demonstrated that the components in the retentate and dialyzate could reassociate to restore activity. The fragment of larger molecular weight (< 10,000) could inhibit the activity of intact MIF, whereas the smaller molecular weight fragment (5,000 to 10,000) could not. These findings suggest that human MIF is composed of at least two noncovalently linked subunits. In analogy to the situation for certain bacterial toxins, one of these may represent an attachment piece for a target cell membrane receptor.