Rat liver thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase: purification and characterization

A reproducible scheme has been developed for the preparation of rat liver thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase (EC 1.6.4.5) by using assays based on reduction of insulin and 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), respectively. Both proteins were purified to homogeneity, as judged from polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Thioredoxin had a molecular weight of 12 000 and contained about 110 amino acids including 4 half-cystines and an NH2-terminal valine. Peptide maps of reduced and carboxymethylated thioredoxin showed that the protein had the active center sequence -Cys-Gly-Pro-Cys-Lys-Met- characteristic of thioredoxins also from procaryotes. Prolonged air oxidation of fully reduced thioredoxin created inactive, aggregated disulfide-containing molecules. Thioredoxin reductase showed a subunit molecular weight of 58 000 and a native molecular weight of 116 000. The enzyme was highly specific for NADPH with a Km of 6 microM. It contained FAD as prosthetic group and was sensitive to inhibition by arsenite. Thioredoxin reductase had a Km of 2.5 microM for rat and calf liver thioredoxin and a Kcat of 3000 min-1.