Observations on the binding of haemoglobin and haematin by serum proteins in the rabbit. rat and guinea pig

Isolation and characterization of the rabbit prt gene product

The product of the rabbit prt gene (PRT), a gene linked to the immunoglobulin kappa-light chain gene ab, was purified from rabbit serum by precipitation with ammonium sulfate and by chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex and Sephacryl S300. Analysis of PRT indicated that it was associated rabbit hemopexin; the molecular weight of PRT (i.e., 68,000), as estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, was similar to the reported molecular weight of rabbit hemopexin; the PRT phenotypes correlated with the phenotypes of a hematin binding protein; PRT itself bound hematin; and the amino acid composition of PRT was similar to the amino acid composition of rabbit hemopexin. The prt gene, however, need not be the structural gene for hemopexin; it may encode a glycosyl transferase responsible in part for the carbohydrate associated with the protein.

Disposal of plasma heme in normal man and patients with intravascular hemolysis

The clearance of plasma protein-bound heme, its sites of removal, and the reutilization of hemeiron were studied by radioisotopic techniques in normal human subjects and in patients with intravascular hemolysis. In normal subjects, injected heme-(59)Fe was bound immediately by albumin and the beta(1)-globulin, hemopexin. Its clearance from the plasma was descr bed by a single exponential equation, and the half-life in plasma was 7-8 hr. Removal was largely by the liver. Iron reutilization began promptly, and half the injected heme-iron was incorporated into circulating red cells within one cell life-span. In patients with intravascular hemolysis, hemopexin was depleted, and injected heme was bound solely to albumin. Plasma clearance was described by a double exponential equation of the form: y = Ae(-k1t) + Be(-k2t). The half-lives of the two components averaged 3.9 and 22.2 hr, respectively. Removal was by the liver in at least some of the patients, and iron reutilization was variable, depending on the state of body iron stores. When hemopex'n was depleted in a normal subject by repeated heme injection, clearance mimicked that observed in the patients.