Stimulation of mutases and isomerases by vanadium.

The effects of vanadate and vanadate complexes on the rates of exchange of phosphoryl groups in the reactions catalyzed by the enzymes phosphoglucomutase and the coupled system formed by phosphoglycerate mutase and enolase, and the effects of vanadyl complexes on the interconversion of aldehyde and keto groups catalyzed by the enzymes phosphomannose isomerase, phosphoribose isomerase, and phosphoglucose isomerase, were measured using one-dimensional 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Chemical exchange was investigated by observing the transfer of magnetization achieved by selective irradiation of resonances using the DANTE pulse sequence. The presence of vanadium stimulated the catalytic activity of the enzymes in vitro, with the exception of enolase whose activity was not affected. Addition of vanadate also increased the rate constants of the interconversion of glucose 6-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate in hemolysates. 51V nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy were employed to investigate the interactions between ammonium vanadate and sugar phosphates and the formation of vanadium--sugar phosphate complexes that may be involved in the stimulation of the catalytic activity of the isomerases.