Mass spectrometry and ferric chloride oxidation applied to urobilinoid structures

Oxidation of alpha-meso-formylmesoheme by heme oxygenase. Electronic control of the reaction regiospecificity

The oxidation of heme to biliverdin IXalpha by heme oxygenase involves regiospecific alpha-meso-hydroxylation followed by extrusion of the alpha-meso-carbon as CO. In an earlier study, enzymatic oxidation of the four meso-methylmesoheme isomers suggested that the reaction regiospecificity is sensitive to the electronic properties of the meso-methyl group (Torpey, J. W., and Ortiz de Montellano, P. R. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 26067-26073), although we could not exclude the possibility that the altered reaction regiochemistry was due to perturbation of the porphyrin structure by the meso-substituent. To examine this possibility, we have synthesized the four meso-formylmesoporphyrin isomers and have examined their oxidation by heme oxygenase. The meso-formyl and meso-methyl substituents differ in that the former is electron withdrawing and the latter is electron donating. In contrast to alpha-meso-methylmesoheme, which is exclusively oxidized at the methyl-substituted position, alpha-meso-formylmesoheme is exclusively oxidized at a non-formyl-substituted meso-carbon. The finding that the methyl and formyl groups channel the reaction regiospecificity in opposite directions establishes that the regiochemistry of the heme oxygenase reaction is primarily under electronic rather than steric control. It also confirms that the oxidation involves electrophilic addition of the oxygen to the porphyrin ring.

On the existence of a mono-vinyl d-urobilin

Chromic acid degradation of a d-urobilin, obtained after incubation of bilirubin in fecal bacterial cultures, gave methylvinylmaleimide and methylethylmaleimide. The d-urobilin, molecular weight 588, C(33)H(40)-N(4)O(6), clearly showed the presence of both vinyl and ethyl resonances in the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum. These results point unambiguously to a urobilin structure with one vinyl and one ethyl beta-substituent.

The oxidation products of crude mesobilirubinogen

Bile pigment esters were separated by ascending t.l.c. Apparently pure pigments, obtained by ferric chloride oxidation of crude mesobilirubinogen, derived from commercial bilirubin by reduction with sodium amalgam, were shown to be complex mixtures. Successive chromatography of their dimethyl esters on silica gel in methyl acetate-methyl propionate-dichloromethane-carbon tetrachloride (1:1:1:1, by vol.), ethyl methyl ketone-1,2-dichloroethane (1:2, v/v) and benzene-ethanol (100:3, v/v) revealed two major blue pigments (verdins), six major violet pigments (violins) and a red pigment (rhodin) together with numerous minor components. i-Urobilin dimethyl ester, prepared from mesobilirubinogen by dehydrogenation with aqueous iodine, was resolved into three major and at least four minor components on silica gel-kieselguhr (3:1, w/w) in benzene-ethanol (25:2, v/v). The chemical nature of these pigments was investigated by oxidation, by visible and u.v. spectroscopy, by mass spectrometry and by n.m.r. spectrometry. The evidence suggests unusual rearrangement of bilirubin during reduction leading to the formation of IIIalpha and XIIIalpha isomers. Isomeric forms of mesobiliviolin IXalpha and of i-urobilin IXalpha may also be formed.