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* Instituto de Química de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; and Unidade de Biomembranas, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Marcel Tabak, Instituto de Química de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Tel.: 55-16-33739979; Fax: 55-16-33739985; E-mail: marcel{at}sc.usp.br.
The extracellular hemoglobin of Glossoscolex paulistus (HbGp) is constituted of subunits containing heme groups, monomers and trimers, and nonheme structures, called linkers, and the whole protein has a minimum molecular mass near 3.1 x 106 Da. This and other proteins of the same family are useful model systems for developing blood substitutes due to their extracellular nature, large size, and resistance to oxidation. HbGp samples were studied by dynamic light scattering (DLS). In the pH range 6.0–8.0, HbGp is stable and has a monodisperse size distribution with a z-average hydrodynamic diameter (Dh) of 27 ± 1 nm. A more alkaline pH induced an irreversible dissociation process, resulting in a smaller Dh of 10 ± 1 nm. The decrease in Dh suggests a complete hemoglobin dissociation. Gel filtration chromatography was used to show unequivocally the oligomeric dissociation observed at alkaline pH. At pH 9.0, the dissociation kinetics is slow, taking a minimum of 24 h to be completed. Dissociation rate constants progressively increase at higher pH, becoming, at pH 10.5, not detectable by DLS. Protein temperature stability was also pH-dependent. Melting curves for HbGp showed oligomeric dissociation and protein denaturation as a function of pH. Dissociation temperatures were lower at higher pH. Kinetic studies were also performed using ultraviolet-visible absorption at the Soret band. Optical absorption monitors the hemoglobin autoxidation while DLS gives information regarding particle size changes in the process of protein dissociation. Absorption was analyzed at different pH values in the range 9.0–9.8 and at two temperatures, 25°C and 38°C. At 25°C, for pH 9.0 and 9.3, the kinetics monitored by ultraviolet-visible absorption presents a monoexponential behavior, whereas for pH 9.6 and 9.8, a biexponential behavior was observed, consistent with heme heterogeneity at more alkaline pH. The kinetics at 38°C is faster than that at 25°C and is biexponential in the whole pH range. DLS dissociation rates are faster than the autoxidation dissociation rates at 25°C. Autoxidation and dissociation processes are intimately related, so that oligomeric protein dissociation promotes the increase of autoxidation rate and vice versa. The effect of dissociation is to change the kinetic character of the autoxidation of hemes from monoexponential to biexponential, whereas the reverse change is not as effective. This work shows that DLS can be used to follow, quantitatively and in real time, the kinetics of changes in the oligomerization of biologic complex supramolecular systems. Such information is relevant for the development of mimetic systems to be used as blood substitutes.
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