No abstract

Insulin iodination interferes with the ability of the interchain S.S bonds to react with sulphite at pH7. In insulin samples containing more than 5 iodine atoms/monomer unit, only one S.S bond/molecule reacts. The effect must be related to the substitution of the iodine into the tyrosyl groups, which probably causes a conformational rearrangement resulting in a steric hindrance of one of the interchain S.S bonds. The effect is removed by increasing the pH or by adding urea (8m) to the reaction mixture. The unreactivity of the S.S bond and the biological inactivation occur at the same ;critical' iodination level, suggesting that a same primary alteration of the molecule is responsible for both the effects.

No abstract

1. The iodination of insulin was studied under various experimental conditions in aqueous media and in some organic solvents, by measuring separately the uptake of iodine by the four tyrosyl groups and the relative amounts of monoiodotyrosine and di-iodotyrosine that are formed. In aqueous media from pH1 to pH9 the iodination occurs predominantly on the tyrosyl groups of the A chain. Some organic solvents increase the iodine uptake of the B-chain tyrosyl groups. Their efficacy in promoting iodination of Tyr-B-16 and Tyr-B-26 is in the order: ethylene glycol and propylene glycol approximately methanol and ethanol>dioxan>8m-urea. 2. It is suggested that each of the four tyrosyl groups in insulin has a different environment: Tyr-A-14 is fully exposed to the solvent; Tyr-A-19 is sterically influenced by the environmental structure, possibly by the vicinity of a disulphide interchain bond; Tyr-B-16 is embedded into a non-polar area whose stability is virtually independent of the molecular conformation; Tyr-B-26 is probably in a situation similar to Tyr-B-16 with the difference that its non-polar environment depends on the preservation of the native structure.