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Radioisotope x-ray fluorescence spectrometry was investigated as a potential screening method for Pb and other elements in housewares. Thirty-six commercial houseware items and 87 ceramic test tiles (85 fired with hobby glazes and 2 blank bisques) were examined qualitatively for the presence of Pb by using 109Cd-induced L x-ray fluorescence emission spectrometry. For the housewares, the technique provided fast, nondestructive analysis of areas with about 10 cm diameters (general regions) to about 4 mm diameters (isolated design regions). Pb was found in 25 of 28 ceramicware items, in all 8 other housewares, and in all the test-tile glazes above the limit of detection of 1 count per second (cps) for Pb L beta x-rays. For housewares, Pb identification did not always correspond to Pb leachability. For 68 test-tile glazes labeled as containing Pb (39 of which were also labeled 'dinnerware safe' or 'safe for food containers'), count rates ranged from 290 to 730 cps, whereas for the other 17 glazes labeled (with one exception) 'non-toxic,' much lower count rates (5-61 cps) were obtained. Other elements found in the housewares or test glazes were As, Au, Ca, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Nb, Ni, Rb, Sr, Y, Zn, and Zr.

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It is now more than 20 years since Davidson and collaborators (1957, Biochim. Biophys, Acta. 26:370-373; J. Mol. Biol. 1:190-191) applied the theoretical ideas of Bloembergen et al. (1948. Phys. Rev. 73:679-712) on outer sphere magnetic relaxation of solvent protons to studies of solutions of methemoglobin. From then on, there has been debate regarding the relative contributions to paramagnetic solvent proton relaxation by inner sphere (ligand-exchange) effects and by outer sphere (diffusional) effects in methemoglobin solutions. Gupta and Mildvan (1975. J. Biol. Chem 250:146-253) extended the early measurements, attributed the relatively small paramagnetic effects to exchange with solvent of the water ligand of the heme-Fe3+ ion, and interpreted their data to indicate cooperativity and an alkaline Bohr effect in the presence of inositol hexaphosphate. They neglected the earlier discussions entirely, and made no reference to outer sphere effects. We have measured the relaxation rate of solvent protons as a function of magnetic field for solutions of methemoglobin, under a variety of conditions of pH and temperature, and have given careful consideration to the relatively large diamagnetic corrections that are necessary by making analogous measurements on oxyhemoglobin, carbonmonoxyhemoglobin, and cyano- and azide-methemoglobin. (The latter two, because of their short electronic relaxation times, behave as though diamagnetic). We show that the paramagnetic contribution to solvent relaxation can be dominated by outer sphere effects, a result implying that many conclusions, including those of Gupta and Mildvan, require reexamination. Finally, we present data for fluoro-methemoglobin, which relaxes solvent protons an order of magnitude better than does methemoglobin. Here one has a startling breakdown of the dogma that has been the basis for interpreting many ligand-replacement studies; in contrast to the prevailing view that replacement of a water ligand of a protein-bound paramagnetic ion by another ligand should decrease relaxation rates, replacement of H2O by F- increases the relaxation rate drastically. The data can all be reconciled, however, with what is anticipated from knowledge of ligand interactions in the heme region.

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Hemoglobin M Milwaukee (beta67E11 Val leads to Glu) is a naturally occurring valency hybrid containing two permanently oxidized hemes on the beta chains. In this mutant, the two abnormal beta chains cannot combine with ligands whereas the two alpha chains are normal and can combine with oxygen with a Hill coefficient varying from 1.1 to 1.3 [Udem et al. (1970), J Mol. Biol. 48, 489]. High-resolution proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 250 MHz has been used to investigate the exchangeable, ring-current shifted, ferrous and ferric hyperfine shifted resonances of Hb M Milwaukee in the absence and presence of organic phosphates. The alpha-heme environment, as manifested by the ring-current shifted resonances in the liganded form as well as the ferrous hyperfine shifted resonances in unliganded form, and subunit interactions, as manifested by the exchangeable resonances, are similar in Hb M Milwaukee to those in normal adult human hemoglobin. Organic phosphates can partially or completely inhibit the structural transformation which normally accompanies the binding of oxygen or carbon monoxide to Hb M Milwaukee. Upon stepwise addition of oxygen to deoxy Hb M Milwaukee, the hyperfine shifted resonance spectra of ferric beta chains show features which cannot be attributed to either fully deoxy or oxy species. However, the spectra for partially oxygenated Hb M Milwaukee can be described as an appropriately weighted average of the spectra of sero, singly, and doubly oxygenated species. The ferric hyperfine shifted resonance spectrum of the singly oxygenated intermediate has been calculated by a method employing least-squares analysis of the spectra of partially oxygenated Hb M Milwaukee at several values of oxygen saturation. The spectrum of this intermediate exhibits features which cannot be accounted for by a two-structure model. The present results are consistent with a sequential model for the oxygenation of this mutant hemoglobin. In view of the similarities between normal adult hemoglobin and Hb M Milwaukee, it is suggested that a two-state concerted allosteric model does not provide an adequate description of the structure-function relationship in normal adult hemoglobin.

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We have measured the intermolecular interactions of oxygenated sickle hemoglobin molecules in cells and in cell-free solutions, and have compared the results with similar data for liganded normal adult hemoglobin. The experiments involve the measurement of the spin-lattice relaxation time T1 of protons of solvent water molecules, as a function of an externally applied static magnetic field. From such data, one can derive a correlation time tauc, for each sample, which is a measure of the time taken for a hemoglobin molecule to randomize its orientation due to Brownian motion. Thus tauc is a measure of the freedom of rotational motion, on a molecular or microscopic level, of hemoglobin molecules. Intermolecular interactions will reduce this freedom of motion and lengthen tauc. We find that oxygenated sickle hemoglobin molecules have an additional intermolecular interaction not found for normal hemoglobin. This extra interaction is increased by the presence of either inorganic phosphate or diphosphoglycerate, and is greater for sickle hemoglobin within cells than in cell-free solutions. By comparing the present results with published data on the viscosity of oxygenated sickle and normal hemoglobin, we conclude that, at concentrations comparable to intracellular values, oxygenated sickle hemoglobin molecules form aggregates several tetramers in size. The possibility exists that these aggregates are the earliest stage of fiber formation itself, the physical basis of the sickling phenomena.

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Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of the contact-shifted spectra of heme protons in deoxyhemoglobin A from human adults show conclusively that oxygen binds to the alpha hemes in preference to the beta hemes. The preferential binding is produced in 10% hemoglobin solution at neutral pH by either a 15-fold molar excess of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate or a 5-fold molar excess of inositol hexaphosphate. Preferential binding is not observable in the absence of the organic phosphates. The results indicate that the oxygenation of hemoglobin may be described by a sequential model, or by a concerted model that allows the alpha hemes to bind ligand first.

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