Purification of an Odorant Binding Protein from Human Nasal Mucosa

The nasal mucosa of several mammals contains a protein that binds several odorants with dissociation constants in the micromolar range and is not found anywhere else in the body. This protein, that is very abundant, accounting for up to 1% of total soluble protein in the nasal mucosa, has been first identified and purified from the cow (Pelosi et al.,1982; Bignetti et al.,1985a; Pevsner et al.,1985) and fully characterized both in terms of structure and of binding specificity (Bignetti et al.,1985b, 1987; Cavaggioni et al.,1987; Pelosi and Tirindelli, 1988; Pevsner et al., 1986, 1988b; Topazzini et al., 1985).