JBC, Vol. 252, Issue 13, 4438-4439, Jul, 1977
On the apparent inhibition of intramolecular activation of pepsinogen by pepsin substrates
P. McPhie
Marciniszyn et al. (Marciniszyn, J., Huang, J. S. Hartsuch, J. A., Tang, J.
(1976) J. Biol. Chem. 251, 7095-7102) have recently suggested an
intermediate in the intramolecular activation of pepsinogen. As evidence,
they showed apparent competitive inhibition of activation by globin,
indication a pepsinogen-globin complex. Previous work had shown pepsinogen
activation to occur very rapidly in the presence of high concentrations of
hemoglobin, a very similar pepsin substrate (McPhie, P. (1974) Biochem.
Biophys. Res. Commun. 56, 789-792). This contradiction has been resolved by
a re-evaluation of the techniques used in the two investigations. The
experimental conditions of Marciniszyn et al. Were inadequately defined to
ensure denaturation of pepsin, a prerequisite of their method. A small
decrease in pH, caused by the presence of extraneous protein, prevents this
denaturation and leads to consistent underestimates of the rate of zymogen
activation.