Indian Journal of Animal Research

The present study was undertaken to isolate gastrin peptide from the antral tissue of broiler chicken. The chicken antrums, i.e. tissue pieces from a narrow zone at gizzard-duodenal junction were collected, boiled in distilled water, followed by centrifugation at 0º C. The supernatant was collected, added to isopropanol and stirred overnight. After addition of dichloromethane, the aqueous phase was partitioned, aspirated and lyophilized. The electrophoretic analysis (SDS-PAGE) of the antral sample was carried out after running it along with a reference protein marker. Characterization of the antral extract revealed a total of eleven peptide bands having relative molecular weights (M_r) ranging from 4.6 to114.5 kDa, out of which peptides having M_r of 22.6 and 26.3 kDa were major ones. The protein or peptide band showing the lowest relative molecular weight (M_r, 4.6 kDa) was identified as the gastrin.