Fluorescence and stopped-flow studies on the N in equilibrium F transition of serumalbumin.

In order to characterize the isomerization of serumalbumin in the acidic pH-range equilibrium and kinetic measurements of the intrinsic fluorescence of bovine serumalbumin and human serumalbumin were performed. Additional experiments with modified bovine serumalbumin made use of substituted 1.9 benzoxanthene dyes as SH-specific extrinsic fluorophores. The intrinsic fluorescence (lambda exc = 275 nm) shows a pH-dependent shift of the maximum of fluorescence emissions which correlates with the N in equilibrium F isomerization. This and the acid expansion at pH less than 3.5 is indicated by the pH-dependence of the fluorescence intensity at 350 nm. While tyrosine fluorescence is increased in all steps of the transition, tryptophane fluorescence is decreased in a different way for BSA (2 trp/molecule) and HSA (1 trp/molecule), the latter showing the N in equilibrium F transition only. Combining the tryptophan fluorescence data with the results from the SH-specific modification of BSA the conclusion may be drawn that the tryptophan residues in BSA and the SH-group belong to different domains of the molecule. Stopped-flow experiments prove the N in equilibrium F' and the F' in equilibrium F transitions to be separable along the time axis, the relaxation times being in the range between 40-50 and 300-600 msec respectively. For the "expansion" the kinetic constants critically depend on the initial pH conditions of the solutions. The backward reaction F leads to N seems to be a multistep isomerization process which is characterized by relaxation times greater than 1 sec.