Immunoregulatory activity of peptides related to platelet factor 4.

Platelet factor 4 (PF4), a secreted platelet protein, alleviates concanavalin A-induced immunosuppression in mice. We now find that activity also resides in (i) the C-terminal tridecapeptide of PF4 (P13S), (ii) an analog of this in which arginine replaces the lysine residues and in which the last two amino acids are absent, (iii) the C-terminal 18 amino acids of low-affinity platelet factor 4, which is very similar to P13S, and (iv) peptide fragments of P13S that contain only 5-9 amino acids. P13S treated with fluorescamine to derivatize the free amino groups retained immunoregulatory activity but did not bind to heparin-agarose. The N-terminal and middle portions of PF4, polylysine, protamine, and three unrelated peptides were inactive in this assay.