Characterization of two constitutive forms of rat liver microsomal heme oxygenase. Only one molecular species of the enzyme is inducible.

The present report describes, for the first time, the identification of two constitutive forms of heme oxygenase, designated as HO-1 and HO-2, in rat liver microsomal fractions. HO-1 was purified to homogeneity and exhibited a specific activity of up to 4000 nmol of bilirubin/mg of protein/h. HO-2 was partially purified to a specific activity of 250 nmol of bilirubin/mg of protein/h. In the native state, the relative activity of HO-2 surpassed that of HO-1 by 2-3-fold. However, a remarkable difference existed in the regulatory mechanism(s) for the production of the two enzyme forms. Whereas the activity of HO-1 was increased up to 100-fold in response to cobalt, cadmium, hematin, phenylhydrazine, and bromobenzene, that of HO-2 was fully refractory to these agents. The two forms differed in their apparent Km, thermolability, ammonium sulfate precipitation, antigenicity, electrophoretic mobility under nondenaturing conditions, and chromatographic behavior. Specifically, for HO-1 the apparent Km value was 0.24 microM, whereas that for HO-2 was 0.67 microM. HO-2 preparation was more susceptible to heat inactivation; nearly 65% activity was retained by HO-1 preparation after exposure to 60 degrees C for 10 min, whereas under the same conditions only about 25% of HO-2 activity was retained. When subjected to ammonium sulfate precipitation the bulk of HO-1 activity precipitated between 0 and 35% saturation, whereas that of HO-2 was precipitated between 35 and 65% saturation. The two forms appeared as immunologically different entities, in so far as a crossreactivity between antibody raised against HO-1 in rabbit and HO-2 could not be detected. Similarities were observed in respect to cofactor requirements for activity, sensitivity to inhibitors, as well as their reactivity towards the substrates used in this study, i.e. hematin, hematoheme, and cytochrome c. Specifically both forms of the enzyme required NADPH-cytochrome c (P-450) reductase, NADPH or NADH, and O2 for activity, and reactions were inhibited by KCN, NaN3, and CO. Both forms cleaved the tetrapyrrole molecule exclusively at the alpha-meso bridge to form biliverdin IX alpha isomer. HO-1 and HO-2 utilized hematin and hematoheme as substrates but not intact cytochrome c.