Effects of pH during recombination of human erythrocyte membrane apoprotein and lipid.

The recombinates from human red cell membrane proteins and lipids resulting from dialysis of the components in 2-chloroethanol against aqueous buffers from pH2-12 have been studied by density gradient centrifugation, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Between pH 4 and 10 most of the proteins were found in the recombinates whereas below pH 4 and above pH 10 only part of them were recovered in the lipoprotein band after density gradient centrifugation. At low pH, increasing incorporation of the "major glycoprotein" into the recombinates was detected by gel electrophoresis and in parallel increasing amounts of particles were found in the freeze-fracture membrane faces. The necessity of working at low pH values from pH 2-4, however, and a critical evaluation of all the data presently available leads to the conclusion that the 2-choloroethanol technique is not adequate for recombination studies tending to membrane reconsitution.