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2ß283 Gly
Cys
1 INSERM U 473, 94276 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre Cedex, France
2 Micromass UK Ltd., Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 5RZ, UK
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-2683, USA
Reprint requests to: Véronique Baudin-Creuza, INSERM U 473 84, rue du Général Leclerc, 94276 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre Cedex, France; e-mail: baudin{at}kb.inserm.fr; fax: 33-1-4959-5662.
(RECEIVED October 1, 2002; FINAL REVISION December 18, 2002; ACCEPTED December 19, 2002)
Article and publication are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.0234403.
| Abstract |
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Keywords: Hemoglobin; disulfide bridge; oligomerization; octamer; blood substitute
Abbreviations: DTT, dithiothreitol DCL-Hb, diaspirin cross-linked hemoglobin GSH, reduced glutathione ESI-MS, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry Hb, hemoglobin Hb A, natural human hemoglobin Hb-CO, carbonmonoxyhemoglobin MetHbCN, cyanmethemoglobin
| Introduction |
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Cys, which has been described as forming polymers via S-S bonds (Blackwell et al. 1971).
We report here the properties of the recombinant Hb ß83Gly
Cys (rHb ßG83C). Using size exclusion chromatography and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), we determined the size of the major form of rHb ßG83C.
| Results and discussion |
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The gel filtration profile of the rHb ßG83C obtained after final purification on mono S cation exchanger column showed 88% to 90% of the molecular complex comprising two tetramers (Fig. 1
). Two minor peaks were observed eluting at the expected volumes for a tetramer and for four tetramers (not shown). This last fraction occurs as a very small population which varies slightly from one preparation to another. Further analysis shows that it was not homogenous, consisting of two species of molecular mass around 320 and 240 kD, corresponding to five and four tetramers, respectively. The polymeric fraction can also be reduced by DTT to form smaller species. It may thus be the result of a series of singly bridged tetramers, which are less stable than the doubly bridged octamer.
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Cys mutation). In both cases the oligomerization process was not observed immediately, either after lysis of the red cells or after purification of the rHb. In the case of rHb Prisca, ß [S9C + C93A + C112G], the maximum oligomer size was obtained after 110 d at 25°C (Fronticelli et al 2001). In contrast, in the case of the rHb ßG83C, more than 80% oligomer was present immediately after the first purification step. The size of the major fraction remained the same for incubation times up to 4 mo. As expected, addition of a large (100-fold) excess of the reducing agent DTT to a solution of rHb ßG83C (100 µM on a heme basis) resulted in the loss of the octameric form, confirming the reversibility of the S-S bonds in the oligomerization process.
These results were corroborated by ESI-MS studies. Under noncovalent conditions the major fraction gave a spectrum (Fig. 2A
) that showed a series of multiply charged ions whose mass is consistent with an octamer comprising four
-chains, four ß-chains, and eight heme groups (
4ßG83C4h8). At low declustering potentials, these ions dominated the spectrum. The only other Hb-related ions present at significant but low levels correspond to heme and
-chain plus heme. A spectrum from normal human Hb (Fig. 2B
) shows tetramer ions as the dominant species with dimer ions at low levels. Supporting evidence for the identity of the chains comprising the major fraction was obtained by analyzing the reduced major fraction under denaturing conditions. These data showed major species at 15,126.4 and 15,913.4 Da corresponding to the normal
-chain (sequence mass 15,126.4 Da) and ßG83C-chain (sequence mass 15913.3 Da), respectively.
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After 20-min incubation at 65°C, the CO form of rHb ßG83C exhibited 4% denaturation, similar to Hb-DCL and slightly less than that observed for Hb A (10%).
Kinetics studies
The CO rebinding kinetics for rHb ßG83C were typical of Hb A, showing two phases corresponding to the two allosteric states (Fig. 3
). The ßG83C mutation did not influence the kinetics. Unlike Hb A, the kinetics do not switch to the rapid form, typical of dimers, at low concentration. Over the range 0.5 to 20 µM, the CO rebinding remained typical only of tetramers, that indicate the bi-tetramer form remains intact, even at the lowest protein concentration.
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Another test of the stability of the oligomer is to mix the rHbCO sample with metHbA-CN. HbA-CO and metHbA-CN normally exchange dimers within seconds, producing CO/CN hybrids that display different CO rebinding kinetics: less of the slow (deoxy-like) phase is observed, because only two of the ligands can be photodissociated. Crosslinked tetramers such as DCL-Hb do not show an interaction with metHbA-CN. rHb ßG83C-CO samples did not show an interaction with metHbA-CN, indicating a stable oligomeric form that does not exchange dimers (Fig. 3
).
Action of GSH on rHb G83C octamers
The SS bond can be reduced by GSH, provoking loss of the octameric form. This reaction was studied in two ways: the kinetics of the octameric fraction was measured at fixed GSH concentration, or the octameric fraction was determined versus GSH concentration after a fixed incubation time (Fig. 4
). In these two experiments, the curves are biphasic; treating the rate coefficients as a second-order reaction, the rapid phase has a time coefficient of about 2 h at 1 mM GSH (kobs = 0.45/mM/h), whereas the second phase was nearly an order of magnitude slower. At low GSH concentrations, the reaction did not go to completion, but seemed to go into equilibrium with competing oxidation reactions. This suggests two types of environment for the SS bonds, with a difference of over an order of magnitude in the relative rate of reduction.
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Incubation of G83C octamers with whole blood or plasma at 37°C to simulate the physiological conditions and separation of different species by size exclusion chromatography on a SuperoseR 12 HR 10/30 showed that the rHb ßG83C remains in octameric form. Although some reduction might occur, the slow reduction by GSH and the lack of an observed effect by fresh plasma indicate that the plasma would not have the potential to reduce the large Hb concentrations needed for use as a blood substitute. The resistance of the dimer of tetramers G83C to reducing agents present in the plasma is particularly interesting in the development of a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier.
The oxidation and functional studies did not show the presence of dimers, indicating that the octamer was not composed of tethered dimers. We propose a model (Fig. 5
) in which both ß-chains of one tetramer are linked to the ß-chains of the second tetramer via S-S bonds. This structure would prevent the simultaneous dissociation of both allosteric interfaces and confer a high degree of stability to the oligomeric structure. Based on the crystallographic structure of Hb A, the distance between the ß83
-carbons of the two ß-subunits of the tetramer changes from about 19 Å in the oxy form to 24.1 Å for deoxy Hb. This implies that the two tetramers forming the octamer (Fig. 5
) must simultaneously make the allosteric transition.
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| Materials and methods |
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- and ß-globin cDNAs, and an E. coli methionine aminopeptidase cDNA (Shen et al. 1993, 1997), after introduction of the ß83Gly
Cys mutation (Quick changeTM site directed-mutagenesis kit, Stratagene Europe) and verification of the
- and ß-globin coding sequences. The cells were harvested by centrifugation and stored frozen at -80°C until needed for purification. The rHb was isolated and purified as described by Shen et al. (1993, 1997) with minor modifications. Briefly, the E.coli cells were suspended in lysis buffer, sonicated, saturated with CO gas, and centrifuged to eliminate the cell membranes. The supernatant was treated with polyethyleneimine to precipitate the nucleic acids. After centrifugation, the supernatant was concentrated and equilibrated in 20 mM Tris-HCl, 0.5 mM triethylenetetraamine. The rHb was purified using the AKTApurifier10 system (Amersham Biosciences) on a Q-Sepharose XL anion exchanger column, and followed by a mono-S cation exchanger column. The oligomeric and tetrameric fractions were then separated by size exclusion chromatography on a SuperoseR 12 HR 10/30 column (Amersham Biosciences) equilibrated at 25°C with 150 mM tris-acetate buffer at pH 7.5 (Manning et al. 1996).
Structural and functional studies
ESI-MS analyses were performed on an LCT time-of-flight instrument (Micromass UK) under denatured and native conditions as described (Green et al. 2001).
Kinetics of CO recombination were obtained after flash photolysis using 10-nsec YAG laser pulses (Quantel) providing 160 mJ at 532 nm. Samples were in 1- or 10-mm cuvettes, with observation at 436 nm. Measurements were made at 25°C, 150 mM tris-acetate, pH 7.5, 100 µM CO (Marden et al. 1988).
Interaction of the oligomers with Hb A dimers was tested by mixing rHb-CO and metHbA-CN. This method has previously been used to study hybrid Hb tetramers: the two parent forms, Hb-CO and metHbA-CN, can be mixed to produce the dimerCO-dimerCN hybrid. These hybrid molecules show less of the slow (deoxy or T-state) CO rebinding, because only two of the ligands can be photodissociated (Marden et al. 1996).
The kinetics of oxidation for liganded Hb samples were followed by absorption spectrophotometry at 37°C for samples under air (Griffon et al. 1998). Hb solutions were 10 µM (on a heme basis), in 20 mM potassium phosphate at pH 7.0.
The heat stability of the Hb was determined by incubating the rHb ßG83C, at 65°C in 10 mM phosphate buffer at pH 7.0 (Wajcman et al. 1973). Samples were 0.1 mM on a heme basis, under 1 atm of CO. Hb A and Hb-DCL served as controls.
Reduction of the disulfide bridge of the rHb ßG83C oligomer
In a first experiment, 100-µL aliquots of purified oligomeric fraction were incubated in the presence of GSH, varying in concentration from 0.01 to 70 mM in 150 mM tris-acetate pH 7.5 buffer. After 2 h at 25°C, the relative populations of the disulfide species of the mixture were analyzed by size exclusion chromatography on a SuperoseR 12 HR 10/30 as described above. In a second experiment, the purified oligomeric fraction was incubated in the presence of 1 or 25 mM GSH in 150 mM tris-acetate buffer at pH 7.5, 25°C. At various times, 100-µL aliquots were withdrawn and analyzed on SuperoseR 12 HR 10/30.
| Acknowledgments |
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The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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