Chemical cross-linking of somatostatin receptors in rat adrenal cortex.

Adrenocortical somatostatin receptors have been shown to interact with somatostatin-14 (S-14) and somatostatin-28 (S-28). To determine whether these peptides interact with the same or different receptor proteins, we chemically cross-linked these receptors using disuccinimidyl suberate to radioligands prepared from tyrosinated S-14 and S-28 analogs. Sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subsequent autoradiography of [125I-Tyr11] S-14 and [Leu8, D-Trp22, 125I-Tyr25] S-28 cross-linked to their binding sites following solubilization in the presence of 50 mM DTT revealed the presence of a single labelled protein of Mr = 200,000. When the cross-linked material was treated under non-reducing conditions, this band was not observed. Furthermore, addition of excess S-14 and S-28 at the time of binding inhibited the incorporation of both radioligands into the receptor protein. These results demonstrate that adrenocortical membrane receptors for somatostatin contain a single receptor protein sub-unit or sub-units of identical size which interact with both S-14 and S-28.