Differences Between Ectopic MSH and Pituitary MSH

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Abstract
Tumors obtained from patients with the ectopic ACTH syndrome contain melanocyte-stimulating factors in addition to ACTH. Immunoreactive β-MSH is present in sufficient abundance in most such tumors to account for the major portion of the melanocyte-stimulating activity. Using a combination of bioassays, radioimmunoassays and Sephadex molecular sieve fractionation, however, it was found that 3 tumors contained biologic MSH activity which could not be accounted for by their content of α-MSH, β-MSH and ACTH. The unknown melanocyte-stimulating hormones were physically separable from the known hormones by Sephadex chromatography. They showed some cross reactivity with antibodies to β-MSH but little or none with antibodies to α-MSH. It is concluded that, in some tumors, ectopic MSH is heterogeneous and structurally different from pituitary MSH.

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