• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2003

A hagfish bradykinin(BK)-related peptide was isolated and characterized from the skin of hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri. The hagfish BK with a molecular mass of 875.8 Da was purified to a homogeneity using $C_{18}$ reverse-phase and cation-exchange high performance liquid chromatography. The primary structure of the hagfish BK was determined as Gly-Thr-Ala-Gly-Ile-Gly-Pro-Phe-Arg by a combination of an automated amino acid sequencing and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. This amino acid sequence contains five substitutions $(Arg^1{\rightarrow}Gly,\;Pro^2{\rightarrow}Thr,\;Pro^3{\rightarrow}Ala,\;Phe^5{\rightarrow}Ile,\;Ser^6{\rightarrow}Gly)$ compared with that of mammalian BK. The hagfish BK showed a contractile action on the intestine of hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri. The threshold concentration of hagfish BK was around $10^{-11}\;M.$