Purification and properties of human erythrocyte arginase

An efficient method for purification of human erythrocyte arginase was developed. This method included two new procedures, hydrophobic chromatography and immunoaffinity chromatography, and yielded 0.7 mg of homogeneous arginase protein from 2.1 L of haemolysate. The molecular weight of native arginase was estimated to be 105,000 by gel filtration on a Sephadex G-150 column, and that of its subunit 35,000 by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate. This indicates that the native enzyme is composed of three homologous subunits. Amino acid composition of human erythrocyte arginase was found to be very similar to that of liver arginase of several other mammals. After dialysis against distilled water, the purified arginase still retained its enzymatic activity which was decreased by EDTA and reversibly restored by Mn(II) ion. A specific polyclonal antibody for use in an immunoassay was also produced. This antibody revealed one single band on immunoelectrophoretic analysis of the acetone powder extract, suggesting absence of arginase isoenzymes in human erythrocytes.