title: Variation of the oxidation state of verdoheme in the heme oxygenase reaction.
abstract: Heme oxygenase (HO) converts hemin to biliverdin, CO, and iron applying molecular oxygen and electrons. During successive HO reactions, two intermediates, alpha-hydroxyhemin and verdoheme, have been generated. Here, oxidation state of the verdoheme-HO complexes is controversial. To clarify this, the heme conversion by soybean and rat HO isoform-1 (GmHO-1 and rHO-1, respectively) was compared both under physiological conditions, with oxygen and NADPH coupled with ferredoxin reductase/ferredoxin for GmHO-1 or with cytochrome P450 reductase for rHO-1, and under a non-physiological condition with hydrogen peroxide. EPR measurements on the hemin-GmHO-1 reaction with oxygen detected a low-spin ferric intermediate, which was undetectable in the rHO-1 reaction, suggesting the verdoheme in the six-coordinate ferric state in GmHO-1. Optical absorption measurements on this reaction indicated that the heme degradation was extremely retarded at verdoheme though this reaction was not inhibited under high-CO concentrations, unlike the rHO-1 reaction. On the contrary, the Gm and rHO-1 reactions with hydrogen peroxide both provided ferric low-spin intermediates though their yields were different. The optical absorption spectra suggested that the ferric and ferrous verdoheme coexisted in reaction mixtures and were slowly converted to the ferric biliverdin complex. Consequently, in the physiological oxygen reactions, the verdoheme is found to be stabilized in the ferric state in GmHO-1 probably guided by protein distal residues and in the ferrous state in rHO-1, whereas in the hydrogen peroxide reactions, hydrogen peroxide or hydroxide coordination stabilizes the ferric state of verdoheme in both HOs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University, Yoshida 1677-1, Yamaguchi 753-8515, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gohya
authors.forename: Michihiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Xuhong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Catharina T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Migita
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D006418:Heme / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D051547:Heme Oxygenase-1 / Q000737:chemistry*; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C099547:verdoheme; D006418:Heme; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D051547:Heme Oxygenase-1; D010100:Oxygen