title: Influence of heat treatment on rabbit liver ferritin.
abstract: Ferritin was purified from rabbit livers either by heat treatment and immunoaffinity chromatography, or by immunoaffinity chromatography alone. The immunoreactivity of ferritin with antibodies raised against heat-treated ferritin was significantly higher for heat-treated preparations than for non-heated preparations. The amount of ferritin protein could be estimated with equal reliability by the assay according to Lowry et al. and by nitrogen determination. Heat treatment favoured the L-subunit-rich ferritin fraction, as measured by densitometric scanning of SDS gradient-pore polyacrylamide gels. Amino acid analysis showed small changes in the amounts of valine, isoleucine and histidine in the heat-treated ferritin, possibly due to selective partial degradation of H-subunit-rich forms of ferritin. These results illustrate that heat treatment, which is a commonly used step in most purification procedures, induces partial denaturation of the ferritin molecules.
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D005293:Ferritins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008099:Liver / Q000032:analysis*; D008970:Molecular Weight; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D005293:Ferritins