title: Differential sensitivity of metallothionein-1 and -2 in liver of zinc-injected rat toward proteolysis.
abstract: The characterization of degradation products of metallothionein (MT) in rat liver is reported. Using gel filtration chromatography on Sephadex G-75 an unknown zinc (Zn)-containing peak was found in livers of rats injected with zinc. It contained at least 13 peptide fractions, designated as LPI-1, LPI-2, LPI-3, LPI-4, LPII-1, LPII-2, LPII-3, LPIII-1, LPIII-2, LPIII-3, LPIII-4, LPIII-5 and LPIII-6. While two of these fractions (LPII-1 and LPIII-4) were identified as the carboxyl-terminal half (alpha-domain) of rat MT-1, LPI-2 and LPI-3 corresponded to the amino-terminal half (beta-domain) of rat MT-2. In contrast, neither the beta-domain of rat MT-1 nor the alpha-domain of rat MT-2 could be recovered. The data may indicate that the two metal clusters of Zn-MT-1 and Zn-MT-2 differ in their stabilities resulting in differences in their susceptibility towards proteolytic degradation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Medicine and Informatics, Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hunziker
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D008668:Metallothionein; D015032:Zinc