Lipolytic and enkephalinase inhibitory activities of polypeptides from placental autolysate prepared for therapeutic purposes.

: In order to study the pharmacodynamic basis of therapeutic uses of placental extracts researches was carried out on Sephadex G25 factors of autolytic extract of human placenta. Four of these fractions showed immunoreactivity for both beta-endorphin and ACTH, and were able to stimulate lipolysis in rabbit adipose tissue. An inhibition of the enkephalinase activity of rat brain homogenates was displayed by placental fractions of low molecular weight. These results suggest that beta-endorphin and ACTH play a roles in the pharmacological activity of placental extracts.