Efficacy and specificity of human parathyroid hormone analogues as antagonists in intact clonal osteogenic sarcoma cells.

Five synthetic analogues of human parathyroid hormone (hPTH), (Tyr34)hPTH(3-34) amide, (5-34) amide, (7-34) amide, (8-34) amide and (9-34) amide, were tested for their ability to antagonize hPTH action specifically in intact cultured cells. Clonal rat osteogenic sarcoma cells were used (UMR 106-06 line) which respond to PTH with an increase in cyclic AMP (cAMP) formation. The most potent antagonists were (Tyr34)hPTH(3-34) amide and (5-34) amide, which inhibited the effect of hPTH(2.4 nmol/l) with half maximally effective concentrations of 0.1 mumol/l. When conditioned medium was used from a human lung cancer cell line producing osteoblast adenylate cyclase-stimulating activity, these two analogues were capable of inhibiting the increase in cAMP production. The specificity of the antagonism was indicated by the inability of the analogues to influence the effects of prostaglandin E2 or of calcitonin, which are alternative stimulators of cAMP production in the osteogenic sarcoma cells. Only (Tyr34)hPTH(3-34) amide showed some PTH-like agonist activity at high concentrations. These analogues should prove valuable in the investigation of PTH actions on target cells and of tumour products which appear to act through the PTH receptor.