Spontaneous in vivo isomerization of bovine serum albumin as a determinant of its normal catabolism.

By combination of isoelectric focusing and immunoelectrophoresis of fresh bovine plasma it is shown that 10% of the albumin in plasma has isoionic points equal to the intramolecular SS-interchanged isomers of bovine serum albumin (BSA). It is also shown that (a) albumin with the isoionic point of SS-interchanged BSA is produced in the cow from radioiodinated BSA depleted from SS-interchanged albumin before injection and (b) purified radiolabeled SS-interchanged BSA can be converted in vivo to albumin with the native isoionic point. On this basis, it is proposed that SS-interchanged albumin in vivo is in postsynthetic equilibrium with the "native" albumin conformation. The SS-interchanged isomers purified either from commerical BSA or from BSA submitted to SH-SS interchange was, after radioiodination with 125I, compared metabolically with "native" albumin labeled with 131I in the same calf. Both species of SS-interchanged albumins have fast initial turnover rates but obtain a normal rate of degradation after the reversion to native albumin. If the isomers formed in vivo have the same properties as the ones present in commercial BSA, at least 50% of the physiological degradation of albumin can be accounted for by the 6-7 times faster catabolic rates of these isomers.