Papers In Press, published online ahead of print February 9, 2003
J. Biol. Chem, 10.1074/jbc.M301086200
Submitted on January 31, 2003
Revised on February 9, 2003
Accepted on February 9, 2003
Thermodynamic analysis of the increased stability of MHC class II molecule I-Ek complexed with an antigenic peptide at an acidic pH
Keigo Saito, Akinori Sarai, Masayuki Oda, Takachika Azuma, and Haruo Kozono
Research Institute for Biological Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Noda, Chiba 278-0022
Corresponding Author: kozonoh{at}rs.noda.tus.ac.jp
The differential scanning calorimetry analysis of the murine MHC class II molecule, I-Ek, in complex with an antigenic peptide derived from mouse hemoglobin (Hb), showed that the thermal stability at the mildly acidic pH is higher than that at the neutral pH. Although the thermal unfolding of I-Ek-Hb was irreversible, we extracted the equilibrium thermodynamic parameters from the kinetically controlled heat capacity curves. Both the denaturation temperatures and the enthalpy changes were almost independent of the heating rate over 1°C per min. The linear relation between the denaturation temperature and the calorimetric enthalpy change provided the heat capacity changes, which are classified into one for mildly acidic pH region and another for the neutral pH region. The equilibrium thermodynamic parameters showed that the increased stability at the mildly acidic pH is due to the entropic effect. These thermodynamic data provided a new insight into the current structural model of a transition to an open conformation at the mildly acidic pH, which is critical for the peptide exchange function of MHC class II in the endosome.