Hemoglobin degradation

The yellow color of urine is due to uro-chromes, which are related to the bile pigments produced by hemoglobin degradation (see p. 194). If urine is left to stand long enough, oxidation of the urochromes may lead to a darkening in color. 

During hemoglobin degradation, free heme, ferriprotoporphyrin-IX or Fe(II) PPIX (Fig. 2) is released in the digestive vacuole. The toxicity of heme to the parasite has been demonstrated [27-30] it is supposed to cause the disruption of metabolic functions by means of peroxidation of membranes and inhibitions of enzymes via the generation of oxidative free radicals [31],... 

Most sensitive to hemoglobin degradation products and detects hemorrhage... 

It has been speculated that malaria parasites have adopted a largely fermentative lifestyle because of their inability to cope with the oxidative stresses imposed by a fully aerobic metabolism, a reliance on hemoglobin degradation, and a lack of catalase and GSH peroxidases. A driving force that may have caused Plasmodium to adopt this way of life may be... 

Gamboa de Dominguez, N. D., and Rosenthal, P. J. (1996). Cysteine proteinase inhibitors block early steps in hemoglobin degradation by cultured malaria parasites. Blood 87, 4448M454. 

Goldberg, D. E., Slater, A. F., Cerami, A., and Henderson, G. B. (1990). Hemoglobin degradation in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum An ordered process in a unique organelle. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87,2931-2935. 

Kamchonwongpaisan, S., Samoff, E., and Meshnick, S. R. (1997). Identification of hemoglobin degradation products in Plasmodium falciparum. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 86,179-186. 

Klemba, M., Gluzman, I. Y., and Goldberg, D. E. (2004). A Plasmodium falciparum dipeptidyl aminopeptidase I participates in vacuolar hemoglobin degradation. ]. Biol. Chem. 279, 43000-43007. 

Vander Jagt, D. L., Hunsaker, L. A., and Campos, N. M. (1986). Characterization of a hemoglobin-degrading, low molecular weight protease from Plasmodium falciparum. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 18, 389-400. 

Hemoglobin degradation. The pathway of hemoglobin degradation is shown in outline form. The structures of biliverdin and bilirubin are also illustrated. 

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