Haem binding to horse spleen ferritin and its effect on the rate of iron release

Abstract

Horse spleen ferritin is shown to bind haem to generate a haemoprotein, named herein haemoferritin. A total of 14-16 haem molecules are bound per 24 subunits of ferritin. The molecular mass of the non-haem-iron-free haemoferritin has been determined to be 420 ± 40 kDa, indicating that haem binding does not lead to dissociation of the 24 subunits that comprise the ferritin molecule. The functional role of the bound haem has been investigated with respect to the release of iron from the non-haem iron core. The bound haem is shown to increase the rate of iron release in a reductive assay system. In the absence of haem the rate of iron release depends on the redox potential of the reductant, but in the presence of haem the rate is largely independent of the reductant and is faster than the rate for the haem-free ferritin. These data indicate that electron transfer across the protein coat of ferritin is the rate-limiting step of iron release in the absence of haem, but in the presence of haem electron transfer is not rate-limiting.