Ferritin. Binding of beryllium and other divalent metal ions

Rat liver homogenates in 0.1 M Tris, pH 7.5, were heated to 80 degrees C, cooled immediately, and centrifuged at 24,000 X g, and 7Be2+ was added to the supernatant. Twenty-five per cent of the radioactivity was bound to a single protein. It was purified to homogeneity and identified to be ferritin as judged by different criteria. These were sucrose density gradient centrifugation, electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel of the native or sodium dodecyl sulfate-treated protein, reactivity to antibodies, isoelectric focusing, and total amino acid composition. Comparative study of the ability of ferritin or apoferritin to bind Cd2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, and Be2+ was conducted by using a gel equilibrium technique, Centifree micropartition technique, and microcentrifuge desalting technique. Ferritin could be saturated with Cd2+ or Zn2+ or Cu2+ but not with Be2+ even after 800 g atoms of Be2+ were bound. None of the bound Be2+ was dialyzable at 4 degrees C in 0.05 Tris acetate buffer, pH 8.5, but at pH 6.5 over 80% of the bound metal ion was dialyzed after 72 h. By contrast, apoferritin bound similar amounts of all four metal ions, some of which were dialyzable. By spectrophotometric titrations at pH 6.5 of Be2+ with sulfosalicylic acid (SSA), BeKDSSA was calculated to be 5.0 X 10(-6) M and by competition of sulfosalicyclic acid and ferritin for Be2+ the BeKDferritin was calculated to be 6.8 X 10(-6) M.