Sulfhemoglobin: properties of partially sulfurated tetramers.
01 January 1986
The properties of sulfhemoglobin (sulfHb) were investigated using disk gel isoelectric focusing and optical spectrophotometry. Laboratory-prepared samples, which contained a high yield of sulfHb (70-85%), contain a tetrameric population that reflects a random distribution of modified (sulfurated) subunits. Hybrid tetramers, i.e., those containing both sulfurated and unmodified subunits were resolved from fully sulfurated and unmodified hemoglobin upon electrofocusing of ferric or ferrous sulfHb samples. The electrophoretic differences between ferric sulfHb and metHb arise from a difference in the pK for the met to hydoxymet conversion of sulfurated subunits.