Concentration-dependent dissociation/association of human prostatic acid phosphatase

The apparent molecular mass of human prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) was estimated over a wide range of enzyme concentrations using equilibrium centrifugation in the "Airfuge" tabletop ultracentrifuge. We show that the average mass of all active PAP species steeply increases at enzyme concentrations around 100 nM. The data indicate that at lower concentrations, active monomer prevail, whereas at concentrations above 100 nM, PAP active dimers are formed. These findings were confirmed by measurements of fluorescence emission intensity as a function of enzyme concentration. A shift of the normalized PAP fluorescence intensity around 100 nM independently indicates that a major structural change of the PAP protein occurs in that range of concentrations. From these findings, we conclude that in dilute solutions, several active PAP species exist, which are involved in concentration-dependent dissociation/association equilibria.