Isolation and Characterization of a Neurotrophic Factor-like Substance from Venom of Agkistrodon acutus.

A neurotrophic factor-like substance from Agkistrodon acutus was isolated by ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography and was found to be homogenous by electrophoresis. Itsmolecular weight was estimated to be approximately 26 kD by gel filtration. A characteristic of the substance was that the protein consisted of two subunits which were bound one to another noncovalently.