Electron paramagnetic resonance studies of spin-labeled hemoglobins and their implications to the nature of cooperative oxygen binding to hemoglobin

The spin label technique has been used to study human hemoglobins A, F, Zürich, and Chesapeake as a function of carbon monoxide saturation. The experimental results suggest that the changes in the electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of hemoglobin labeled with N-(1-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidinyl)iodoacetamide depend on the state of ligation of more than one heme group. For those hemoglobins with full or large cooperative ligand binding (such as A, F, and Zürich), there is a lack of isosbestic points in the spectra as a function of CO saturation. However, for those hemoglobins with little or no cooperative ligand binding (such as Chesapeake and methemoglobins), there is a sharp set of isosbestic points. These findings confirm and extend the early work of McConnell and co-workers. The absence of a set of isosbestic points in those hemoglobins with full cooperative ligand binding is consistent with the sequential model of Koshland, Némethy, and Filmer for cooperative oxygen binding to hemoglobin. The present results, with hemoglobin variants having known amino acid substitutions, also focus on the importance of the interactions among the amino acid residues located at alpha(1)-beta(2) or alpha(2)-beta(1) subunit contacts for the functioning of hemoglobin as an oxygen carrier. In addition, the resonance spectra of the spin label are very sensitive to small structural variations around the heme groups in the beta- or gamma-chains where the labels are attached. The results of the spin label experiment are discussed in relation to recent findings on the mechanism of oxygenation of hemoglobin from the nuclear magnetic resonance studies of this laboratory and the x-ray crystallographic analysis of Perutz and co-workers.

Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of hemoglobins. 3. Evidence for the nonequivalence of alpha- and beta-hains in azide derivativeof methemoglobins

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (100-MHz proton) was used to study the low-spin (S = 1/2) azide derivatives of human adult (alpha(2)beta(2)), human fetal (alpha(2)gamma(2)), Zürich (alpha(2)beta(2) (63 His --> Arg)), and horse (alpha(2)'beta(2)') methemoglobins, as well as whale metmyoglobin in 0.1 M deuterated phosphate at pD 7 and at 31 degrees C. The experimental results indicate that the azide-bound heme groups of the alpha- and beta-chains in human adult methemoglobin and of the alpha- and gamma-chains in fetal methemoglobin are not equivalent. The affinity of the beta- or gamma-chain for azide ion appears larger than that of the alpha-chain. The nuclar magnetic resonance spectrum of hemoglobin Zürich shows that the environment of the azide-heme complex in the abnormal beta-chain is altered by the substitution of arginine for histidine in the beta-63 position, while the alpha-heme environment remains unaffected.