DISCRIMINATION OF MAMMALIAN GROWTH-HORMONES BY PEPTIDE-MASS MAPPING

Recognition by the legal authorities that growth hormones (GHs) may be abused to improve sporting performance and/or physique has led to the implementation of controls that make it an offence to produce, supply , possess or import and export GHs, with intent to supply, without the authority to do so. A method is described for the discriminatory anal ysis of human, equine, porcine and bovine GHs for forensic purposes. P eptide-mass mapping by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MA LDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry following tryptic digestio n gave sequence coverages of 97.4%, 93.7%, 94.2% and 90.6% for human, equine, porcine and bovine GHs respectively. The tryptic-mass maps gen erated were sufficient to discriminate between the four hormones analy sed and thus provide unambiguous identification of each individual GH, Identification of the N-terminal peptides of recombinant equine and p orcine GHs, which possess additional methionine residues, within the t ryptic-mass maps may provide the basis of a test to indicate exogeneou s administration rather than endogenous secretion of GH in performance dogs and horses. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.