Study of bovine hemoglobin dissociation by multiangle laser light-scattering method.

Hemoglobin (Hb) is an oligomeric protein, composed of four monomeric subunits. Hb molecule may undergo dissociation from a single native tetramer to two dimmers, which is called hemoglobin dissociation. In this article the dissociation of bovine Hb is studied by measurment of the average MW of the samples using the multiangle laser light-scattering method. Advanced multiangle laser light-scattering technique is a powerful method to determine the absolute molecular weights of the protein in solution. Two different methods, microbatch multiangle light-scattering (MALS) and on-line size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography light scattering with refractive index detector, are used to measure the average molecular weight of bovine Hb in different concentration respectively. The results of the two methods are agreed well. From the results, it can be concluded that the average molecular weigh of bovine Hb will be about 54 kDa when the bovine Hb concentration is more than 1.5 mg/mL, and will be about 36 kDa when the concentration is less than 0.03 mg/mL. The other conclusion, which can be derived from these results, is that the dissociation of bovine Hb is related with the pH and the tetramer appears to be more stable in the pH range of 6-9.