Myoglobin, dissociation

THE OXYGEN DISSOCIATION CURVES FOR MYOGLOBIN HEMOGLOBIN SUIT THEIR PHYSIOLOGIC ROLES... 

The biochemical activity and accessibility of biomolecule-intercalated AMP clays to small molecules was retained in the hybrid nanocomposites. For example, the absorption spectrum of the intercalated Mb-AMP nanocomposite showed a characteristic soret band at 408 nm associated with the intact prosthetic heme group of the oxidised protein (Fe(III), met-myoglobin) (Figure 8.9). Treatment of Mb with sodium dithionite solution resulted in a red shift of the soret band from 408 to 427 nm, consistent with the formation of intercalated deoxy-Mb. Reversible binding of CO under argon to the deoxy-Mb-AMP lamellar nanocomposite was demonstrated by a shift in the soret band from 427 to 422 nm. Subsequent dissociation of CO from the heme centre due to competitive 02 binding shifted the soret band to 416nm on formation of intercalated oxy-Mb. 

Recent work has resolved some of the issues that complicate direct electrochemistry of myoglobin, and, in fact, it has been demonstrated that Mb can interact effectively with a suitable electrode surface (103-113). This achievement has permitted the investigation of more complex aspects of Mb oxidation-reduction behavior (e.g., 106). In general, it appears that the primary difficulty in performing direct electrochemistry of myoglobin results from the change in coordination number that accompanies conversion of metMb (six-coordinate) to reduced (deoxy) Mb (five-coordinate) and the concomitant dissociation of the water molecule (or hydroxide at alkaline pH) that provides the distal ligand to the heme iron of metMb. 

Mb. Subsequent application of this technique to reduction of various derivatives of reduced and oxidized myoglobin led to the observation that the rate of reduction by hydrated electrons depends primarily on the net charge of the protein and the dissociation constant for formation of ligand bound derivatives of metMb. 

An alternative application of flash photolysis to study myoglobin electron transfer kinetics has been employed by Hofifinan and co-workers 156). In this approach, the photoactive zinc-substituted derivative of Mb is mixed with an equivalent amoimt of ferricytochrome bs to form an electrostatically stabilized binary complex. Upon transient irradiation, the strongly reducing Zn-Mb intermediate is formed, and the kinetics of ferricytochrome reduction within the preformed complex can be monitored spectrophotometrically. The resulting kinetics represents a mixed-order process consistent with electron transfer both within the electrostatically stabilized complex and between the dissociated components of the complex. 

Fig. 1. Overview of intravascular heme catabolism. Hemoglobin, myoglobin, and other heme proteins are released into the circulation upon cellular destruction, and the heme moiety is oxidized by O2 to the ferric form (e.g., methemoglobin and metmyoglobin). Haptoglobin can bind a substantial amount of hemoglobin, but is readily depleted. Ferric heme dissociates from globin and can be bound by albumin or more avidly by hemopexin. Hemopexin removes heme from the circulation by a receptor-mediated transport mechanism, and once inside the ceU heme is transported to heme oxygenase for catabolism.

Reduction Potentials Measured for Myoglobin and the Four Nitrophorins, and the Derived Ligand Dissociation Constants of the Nitrophorins (49, 50, 55)... 

Dissociation of axial ligands has been followed by picosecond spectroscopy for a number of metalloporphyrins. For the well-known photodissociation of O2 and CO from hemoglobin and myoglobin the photoproducts appear very early < 10 psec. Dissociation of basic axial ligands such as pyridine and piperadine occurs within the lifetime of the excited state for Ni(II), Co(III) as well as for Fe(II) porphyrins. Whether the ejected species is "hot" with energy from the electronic deactivation of the porphyrin is not known, but the dissociation process does not appear to be dependent upon the wavelength of the excitation pulse (30,32). 

Hyperbolic shape of the enzyme kinetics curve Most enzymes show Michaelis-Menten kinetics (see p. 58), in which the plot of initial reaction velocity, v0, against substrate concentration [S], is hyperbolic (similar in shape to that of the oxygen-dissociation curve of myoglobin, see p. 29). In contrast, allosteric enzymes frequently show a sigmoidal curve (see p. 62) that is similar in shape to the oxygen-dissociation curve of hemoglobin (see p. 29). 

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