Quantitative immunoelectron-microscopic analyses of the distribution of cytochrome P-450 molecules on rat liver microsomes.

Specific antibodies to phenobarbital-induced cytochrome P-450 were prepared by affinity chromatography and coupled to ferritin with glutaraldehyde. The ferritin antibody conjugates with molecular ratio of approximately one were isolated by gel filtration and were used for immunochemical and immunoelectron-microscopic analyses of the distribution of cytochrome P-450 on microsomes from untreated, phenobarbital- and methylcholanthrene-treated rats. Binding assay showed that at the saturation level of the antibodies, microsomes from untreated, phenobarbital- and methylcholanthrene-treated rats bind 0.25, 0.41 and 0.14 mol of the antibody per mol of cytochrome P-450, respectively. From these data, the maximum number of the ferritin particles which can bind with microsomes was calculated. This number was in good agreement with the average number of ferritin particles bound per microsome which was determined by electron-microscopic observations of the microsomes incubated with the antibody conjugates at saturation level. Electron-micriscopic observations also indicated that smooth microsomes can bind more conjugates than rough microsomes and this finding was consistent with the biochemical data that, on the protein basis, smooth microsomes comtain more cytochrome P-450 than rough microsomes, even after correction for ribosomal proteins. The number of ferritin particles bound per smooth microsome was proportional to the diameter and non-random distribution of the ferritin particles on the microsomal vesicles, which was deduced simply by inspection in the previous paper from this laboratory, was confirmed by statistical analyses of electron micrographs of the labelled microsomes.