Health & Medicine
Old Blood Puzzle Solved
Brooke Miller
First Posted: Sep 02, 2012 01:59 PM EDT
Since the 1960s the scientists were given a challenge to solve the structure of the protecting protein complex that forms when hemoglobin is released from red cells and becomes toxic. And the team of researchers at Aarhus University, Denmark have solved this mystery.
This new finding was carried in the journal Nature.
The crucial finding of this study is the three-dimensional mapping of the 'haptoglobin-hemoglobin complex'.
"After many failing experiments, our breakthrough came when we gave up using human material and went to the local slaughterhouse to purchase pig blood. Not a particular high-technological approach, but this transition from studying human blood to blood from a species with close homology had magic effects. After running into dead ends for two years and trying out the most complex gene-technological ways to produce the right material, it suddenly worked," says Søren Kragh Moestrup, the head of the research group at Department of Biomedicine.
Interesting details on hemoglobin was revealed through this study. This essential blood component that carries oxygen becomes toxic with potential damaging effects on tissues when it is released outside the red cells. Diseases like malaria and other infections can have an excess of release.
According to the report published in the journal, the blood protein haptoglobin is the main protector which captures hemoglobin and sends it to a receptor that engulfs the hemoglobin-haptoglobin complex. This same group had discovered this function of the receptor and named it CD163.
"We have now shown how this unique protein complex forms by generation of a detailed 3-dimensional map of each atom. This shows for the first time how the complex is formed and explains the tight protein association," says Christian Brix Folsted Andersen. With Master's student Morten Torvund-Jensen he has been an essential driving force in the project.
This new finding has led to the discovery of a new type of protein that can be used in therapy and diagnostics.It will also help in further studies on red blood cells.
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First Posted: Sep 02, 2012 01:59 PM EDT
Since the 1960s the scientists were given a challenge to solve the structure of the protecting protein complex that forms when hemoglobin is released from red cells and becomes toxic. And the team of researchers at Aarhus University, Denmark have solved this mystery.
This new finding was carried in the journal Nature.
The crucial finding of this study is the three-dimensional mapping of the 'haptoglobin-hemoglobin complex'.
"After many failing experiments, our breakthrough came when we gave up using human material and went to the local slaughterhouse to purchase pig blood. Not a particular high-technological approach, but this transition from studying human blood to blood from a species with close homology had magic effects. After running into dead ends for two years and trying out the most complex gene-technological ways to produce the right material, it suddenly worked," says Søren Kragh Moestrup, the head of the research group at Department of Biomedicine.
Interesting details on hemoglobin was revealed through this study. This essential blood component that carries oxygen becomes toxic with potential damaging effects on tissues when it is released outside the red cells. Diseases like malaria and other infections can have an excess of release.
According to the report published in the journal, the blood protein haptoglobin is the main protector which captures hemoglobin and sends it to a receptor that engulfs the hemoglobin-haptoglobin complex. This same group had discovered this function of the receptor and named it CD163.
"We have now shown how this unique protein complex forms by generation of a detailed 3-dimensional map of each atom. This shows for the first time how the complex is formed and explains the tight protein association," says Christian Brix Folsted Andersen. With Master's student Morten Torvund-Jensen he has been an essential driving force in the project.
This new finding has led to the discovery of a new type of protein that can be used in therapy and diagnostics.It will also help in further studies on red blood cells.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone