Comparison of bioactive aldehydes modifying action on human albumin

Abstract

Protein’s postsynthetic modifications are a cause and a consequence of many diseases. Endogenous aldehydes are one of the main factors of these modifications formation. The human albumin’s modification under some aldehydes influence in in vitro experiment has been investigated. Human albumin (20 mM) was incubated with following aldehydes: ribose, glyoxal, methylglyoxal and formaldehyde (20 mM each) and their combinations in 0.1 M Na-phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) with 0.02% sodium azide at 37 °C in the dark for up to 30 days. We have determined the fluorescent properties of the samples, the content of protein’s carbonyl groups and the redistribution of protein’s molecular weight. The following ratings of aldehydes from the lowest to the highest effect have been obtained. Fluo­rescent albumin adducts formation: formaldehyde, methylglyoxal, ribose, glyoxal; carbonylation of the protein: ribose, formaldehyde, glyoxal, methyl­glyoxal; polymerization of albumin – the formation of intermolecular crosslinks: ribose, methylglyoxal, glyoxal, formaldehyde. The results indicate that these aldehydes have different capability for protein’s modifications. For example, formaldehyde, having the lowest ability to form fluorescent adducts, shows the highest ability to form protein’s intermolecular crosslinks. Therefore, methods and parame­ters in order to evaluate the protein postsynthetic modification intensity have to be chosen correctly according to carbonyl stress peculiarity in order to evaluate the protein’s postsynthetic modification intensity.

Keywords

• albumin
• aldehydes
• fluorescence
• protein’s cross-link
• protein’s postsynthetic modification