Carbon-13-proton nuclear magnetic double-resonance study of deoxyhemoglobin S gelation.

Recently developed I3C-'H nuclear magnetic double-resonance techniques have been used to study the gelation of deoxyhemoglobin S molecules, both in hemoglobin solutions and within sickle erythrocytes. Only isotropically mobile hemoglobin molecules (7 5 10" s) are detected in a scalar-decoupled I3C N M R spectrum, whereas only the motionally restricted molecules of polymerized hemoglobin are detected in a proton-enhanced I3C spectrum. The latter spectrum is obtained with a matched Hartmann-Hahn contact to transfer polarization from protons to carbons (cross-polarization). Both isotropically mobile and polymerized hemoglobin molecules are detected in a dipolar-decoupled I3C spectrum. A comparison of integrated intensities obtained from the various types of spectra show that, a t 37 O C , apA l t h o u g h the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease is linked to the intracellular gelation of deoxyhemoglobin S molecules (Dean & Schechter, 1978), studies of hemoglobin polymerization in cells have lagged behind studies of hemoglobin solutions. Structural analyses by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy (Magdoff-Fairchild et al., 1972; Finch et al., 1973; Dykes et al., 1978) have suggested that the deoxyhemoglobin S gel in cell-free hemoglobin preparations and in erythrocytes is the same or similar. Studies of the mechanism of intracellular hemoglobin polymerization, however, have been largely restricted to proton nuclear magnetic resonance studies of water relaxation parameters (Cottam et al., 1974; Lindstrom et al., 1976; Zipp et al., 1976). Such magnetic resonance spectroscopy, including parallel studies with hemoglobin S solutions (Ho et al., 1976), only permit indirect measurements of the polymerization process. Considerably more progress has been made in understanding the physical chemistry of deoxyhemoglobin S gelation in cell-free preparations (Hofrichter et al., 1976a,b). A variety of physical data supports the view that the highly viscous gel is composed of paracrystalline polymerized hemoglobin molecules in equilibrium with largely monomeric (64 000 M,) hemoglobin in solution. The gel can be separated into two components by high-speed ultracentrifugation (Bertles et ai., 1970; Hofrichter et al., 1976a,b; Ross et al., 1977). All of the polymer phase is contained in a pellet which can be readily separated from the supernatant. The fraction of hemoglobin in the polymer phase,fp, has been calculated by assuming that the pellet is composed entirely of polymer. Values offp have been so obtained in cell-free preparations, as a function of temperature and hemoglobin concentration (Hofrichter et al., 1976b; Ross et al., 1977). W e describe herein a I3C N M R procedure for measuring fp in cell-free preparations of deoxyhemoglobin S as well as From the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases (J.W.H.S. and A.N.S.), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (W.E.), and the National Institute of Dental Research (D.A.T.), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014. Received October 16, 1978; revised manuscript received January 17, 1979. *Present address: Kodak Park Research Labs, Rochester, NY 14550. Present address: Bureau of Biologics, Bethesda, MD 20014. proximately 0.4 of the molecules in a 28 g/dL preparation of deoxyhemoglobin S enters the polymer phase, while a t 37 g/dL a significantly higher fraction (ca. 0.6) of the hemoglobin is in the polymer phase. As much as 0.8 of the hemoglobin is polymerized in deoxygenated sickled erythrocytes. The cell-free deoxyhemoglobin S preparation a t 28 g /dL has the spectral characteristics of a two-phase system. The motionally narrowed signals observed in the scalar-decoupled spectrum indicate that one phase behaves as a low-viscosity solution of isotropically mobile molecules. In contrast, the width of the signal (2 150 ppm) observed in the carbonyl-aromatic region of the proton-enhanced I3C spectrum indicates that the second phase, containing the polymerized molecules, behaves as a crystalline solid. in deoxygenated sickle erythrocytes. This procedure utilizes the different I3C spectral characteristics of isotropically mobile and motionally restricted molecules to discriminate between hemoglobin S monomers and polymers. The line widths of isotropically mobile (7 5 10" s) molecules are less than 1 kHz since the strong, angularly dependent interactions which broaden lines in solids (static dipolar interactions and chemical shift anisotropy) are averaged out by molecular rotation. The small remaining indirect or scalar couplings are removed by low level (7Hz/2a 3 kHz) irradiation of the protons a t their Larmor frequency (scalar decoupling). In randomly oriented rigid solids (powders), the strong, angularly dependent I3C-lH static dipolar interaction produces a I3C powder line shape that is too broad to detect. However, the I3C-IH static dipolar contribution to the powder line width can be removed (Bloch, 1958; Pines et al., 1973; Mehring, 1976) by strong ( 7 H 2 / 2 a 60 kHz) resonant irradiation of the protons (dipolar decoupling). The powder line shape of rigid proteins in the presence of dipolar decoupling arises from chemical shift anisotropy (Pines et al., 1973; Mehring, 1976) and I3C-l4N static dipolar coupling (Torchia & VanderHart, 1979). The powder line width arising from these interactions is narrow enough (53 kHz) to detect, and the powder width and shape provide information about molecular motion on the millisecond time scale (Pines et al., 1973; Mehring, 1976). While the line narrowing produced by dipolar decoupling permits detection of signals arising from immobilized molecules, it is often difficult to measure the unsaturated I3C signal intensity in solids since rigid molecules have very large I3C spin-lattice relaxation times. A matched Hartmann-Hahn (Hartmann & Hahn, 1962; Pines et al., 1973) contact circumvents this problem by transferring polarization from the protons (which often have small T I values in solids) to the carbon nuclei. After cross-polarization, the proton-enhanced I3C signal is detected with dipolar decoupling.' The signal intensity can be up to four times that obtained in the usual dipolar-decoupled I3C spectrum acquired without proton ' In proton-enhanced spectra the I3C polarization is obtained from the protons, whereas in dipolar-decoupled spectra the I3C polarization arises from ')C spin-lattice relaxation processes. In both procedures, dipolar decoupling is applied during acquisition of the free-induction decay signal. This article not subject to U S . Copyright. Published 1979 by the American Chemical Society 1798 B I O C H E M I S T R Y h I T H E R l . A \ D . E C I ~ Y , S C H E C H T F R . 4 C D T O R C H I A enhancement. Since polarization transfer occurs only between I3C and 'H spins having a nonvanishing static dipolar interaction (Hartmann & Hahn, 1962; Pines et al., 1973: Demco et al., 1975), carbons which are isotropically mobile (on the time scale of S'10-5 s) will not contribute signal to the proton-enhanced spectrum. Hence, a scalar-decoupled spectrum contains signal intensity from only isotropically mobile molecules, whereas a proton-enhanced spectrum contains signal from only motionally restricted molecules. Dipolar decoupling reveals the sum of the two, provided that I3C TI values are sufficiently small. This paper presents the scalar-decoupled, dipolar-decoupled, and proton-enhanced spectra of hemoglobin A and hemoglobin S, in solutions and in intact cells. Comparison of integrated signal intensities in these three types of spectra permits estimates of the degree of polymerization of the hemoglobin under a variety of conditions. Furthermore, a lower limit for the rotational correlation time of polymerized hemoglobin can be estimated from the line shapes observed in the protonenhanced spectrum. Materials and Methods Sample Preparations. Hemoglobin S was prepared according to the ion-exchange procedure of Huisman & Dozy ( 1 965) as follows. Fresh hemolysates were prepared from erythrocytes obtained from individuals homozygous for the sickle globin gene. These hemolysates were made 0.4 M i n NaC1, and membranes were removed by centrifugation at 30000g for 30 min. The supernatants were dialyzed into 0.05 M Tris-HCI a t pH 8.3 and then applied to DEAE-Sephadex A-SO from which the hemoglobin was eluted with a gradient of p H from 8.2 to 7.3. The chromatographed hemoglobin was concentrated by ultrafiltration and vacuum dialysis and then dialyzed from the chromatographic buffer into 0.15 M potassium phosphate buffer a t p H 7.35. Hemoglobin concentrations were determined by the cyan-met procedure (van Assendelft, 1970), with an extinction coefficient a t 540 nm of 1 1 .O mM cm-' per heme unit of molecular weight 16 000. In those cases where N M R samples were not prepared directly from freshly chromatographed hemoglobin, the hemoglobin was frozen dropwise in liquid nitrogen and stored at ---70 O C . The concentration of methemoglobin in each oxygenated sample was determined spectrophotometrically. In no case did the methemoglobin constitute more than 10% of the sample. Hemoglobin, a t appropriate concentrations. was transferred a t 5 "C and in a nitrogen atmosphere into either 5or 8-mm N M R tubes, which were then subjected to repeated flushing and evacuation of nitrogen. Samples were deoxygenated by means of small aliquots of freshly prepared buffered sodium dithionite (Vine Chemicals, Ltd., Manchester, England), which were injected into the solution from a Hamilton syiinge fitted with a 15-mm needle, such that the final concentrations of dithionite were 0.05 M . The tubes were immediately sealed with Lexan polycarbonate plugs fitted with "0" rings. The sealed N M R tubes were rapidly agitated by hand in an ice-water mixture and then gently agitated a t 5 O C for a 24-11 period. Final hemoglobin concentrations in the 5-mm N M R tubes were determined with a Cary 17 spectrometer and the equation (Hofrichter et al., 1976a) c (g/dL) = 20.06[(Aglo A,090) + 0.041 based upon the hemoglobin extinction coefficients a t 91 0 and 1090 nm. (The correction factor 0.04 accounts for differences in the absorption of buffer a t these wavelengths, and the multiplicative constant, 20.06, differs from the value 24.56 used by Hofrichter et al . (1976a) since the 5-mm N M R tube has a larger internal diameter than the 5-mm quartz EPR tube.) The ability of the resulting deoxygenated samples to polymerize was then verified by monitoring the turbidity increase of these samples at 800 nm in a temperature-jump experiment, performed as described elsewhere (Hofrichter et al., 1976a), except that it was carried out on a Cary 15 spectrometer with a specially constructed light-proof housing designed to accommodate long N MR tubes. Whole blood from individuals homozygous for sickle hemoglobin was collected in EDTA solutions to prevent coagulation and then gently centrifuged, and the plasma was removed. The erythrocytes were resuspended and washed three times with 0.15 M NaCl at 4 "C. The cells were then pelleted directly in 8-nim N M R tubes, the latter being reinforced against breakage by means of Teflon centrifuge tube mountings. As with the hemoglobin, the cells were deoxygenated with sodium dithionite at a final concentration of 0.05 M and sealed with Lexan plugs. Data collection was normally bcgun within approximately 3 h of blood drawing. "C Fourier Transjorm Spectra. 13C spectra were obtained on a Nicolet TT14 spectrometer modified for high-power double-resonance experiments in solids (Torchia et al., 1977; Jelinski and Torchia, unpublished experiments). All experiments were performed in a Dewared probe containing a I3C coil having a length of 18 mm and an inside diameter of 8 mm. Most experiments were carried out with 0.65-cm3 preparations of hemoglobin in 8-mm Wilmad glass tubes. Some early experiments were carried out on 0.2-cm3 samples in 5-mm tubes. Although the signal to noise ratio was three times smaller in the 5-mni tubes, it was possible to measure the optical properties and Y M R spectra in the same tube. The large hemoglobin absorbance precluded optical measurements in 8-mm tubes. The l3C transmitter delivered 50 W (at 15.09 MHz) to the probe, which rotated the I3C magnetization through 90" i n ca. 5 ps. The probe was tuned to 50 9 before each spectrum was obtained. Scalar decoupling was carried out with a resonant field of 0.7 G (y2H2/2a = 3 kHz) applied to the protons. whereas a 14-G field (yzH2/2a = 60 kHz) was used for dipolar decoupling. Nuclear Overhauser enhancements were eliminated in all decoupled spectra by the use of gated decoupling. Proron-Enhanced Spectra. The Hartmann-Hahn condition (3 , H I = -,zHz) \vas established in the following manner. A sample of adamantane was placed in the probe, and the impedance of the "C channel was tuned to 50 9. The standing tvave ratio in the proton channel was adjusted to a minimum, and proton-enhanced spectra of adamantane were obtained as a function of the power level in the I3C channel which could be attenuated in 0.1 -dB steps. The best match attenuation level was that which gave the largest amplitude adamantane signal. After replacing the adamantane sample with the hemoglobin sample. the impedances in the proton and I3C channels were tuned as described for adamantane. All proton-enhanced spectra were obtained by alternating the proton spin temperature (Stejskal & Schaefer, 1975) to suppress artifacts. For instance, isotropically mobile hemoglobin does not contribute intensity to a proton-enhanced spectrum when the sign of the proton spin temperature is alternated. This procedure was also incorporated into the pulse sequence used to measure the partially relaxed spectra (Torchia, 1978), ensuring that the time dependence of proton-enhanced "C magnetization alone was detected. Temperature Meusurenients. The sample temperature in the probe was regulated with a Varian temperature controller. I 3 C N M R O F D E O X Y H E M O G L O B I N S G E L A T I O N V O L . 1 8 , N O . 9, Table I: Comparison of Fractions of Polymerized Deoxyhemoglobin S Determined from "C Spectra of Various Preparations at 37 "C fraction sample methoda polymerizedb