Nonenzymic reactivation of reduced bovine pancreatic ribonuclease by air oxidation and by glutathione oxidoreduction buffers.

With the glutathione system that leads to rapid regeneration of reduced lysozyme (Saxena, V. P., and Wetlaufer, D. B. (1971) Biochemistry 9, 5015), reduced pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase) regenerated activity in high yield (greater than 90%) but at a considerably lower rate (t1/2 approximately 75 min). Systematic examination of the effects upon regeneration of the concentrations and ratios of reduced and oxidized glutathione (GSH and GSSG) showed the same broad optima for RNase as were earlier found for lysozyme: [GSSG] = 5 X 10(-4) M, [GSH] = 5 X 10(-3) M. Regeneration of reduced RNase by air oxidation was shown to be inhibitable by 10(-4) M EDTA, whereas the glutathione regeneration was unaffected by EDTA. In addition the air-oxidative regeneration showed a strong temperature dependence, in contrast with the glutathione system. The mechanisms of these two kinds of regenerations are therefore different. Six potentially catalytic metal ions were tested in the air-oxidative regeneration of RNase: Cu2+, Co2+, Mn2+, Fe3+, Zn2+, and Ni2+. Of these, only Cu2+ enhanced the rate of regeneration of RNase activity, although both Cu2+ and Co2+ catalyzed thioloxidation of reduced RNase. The rates and yields of RNase regenerations were independent of protein concentration from 3 X 10(-7) M to 1.2 X 10(-5) M in the glutathione system. Preincubation of freshly dissolved reduced RNase under nonoxidizing conditions before adding glutathione did not change the rate or extent of regeneration. Studies of its pH dependence showed that the glutathione regeneration depends on the deprotonation of prototropic groups with 7.5 less than pK less than 8.0. The major ion exchange chromatographic peaks from glutathione and air-oxidative regenerations appeared to be identical with native RNase, by the criteria of specific activity, chromatographic mobility, and circular dichroic spectra. The glutathione system permits regeneration at much higher RNase concentration than the air regeneration, with rates and yields comparable to the greatest reported for air regeneration.