The secondary and aggregation structural changes of BSA induced by trivalent chromium: A biophysical study

Abstract

Trivalent chromium Cr(III), which was originally considered to be innocuous as a nutriment, has been suspected to induce some abnormalities in human body recently. In the present work, the effects of Cr(III) on the structural state of BSA were comprehensively investigated through a series of appropriate methods in combination, including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), circular dichroism (CD), UV–vis absorption, synchronous fluorescence, fluorescence lifetime analysis, resonance light scattering (RLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and excitation–emission matrix spectroscopy (EEMS) methods. XPS accurately described the binding activity of Cr(III) with protein C, N and O atoms. The structural analysis according to FTIR and CD methods showed that the Cr(III) binding altered BSA conformation with a major reduction of α-helix. RLS and DLS analyses demonstrated that the presence of Cr(III) with low concentration could induce the aggregation structural changes of BSA. UV–vis absorption, EEMS and synchronous fluorescence suggested that the interaction between Cr(III) and BSA induced a slight unfolding of the polypeptide backbone and altered the microenvironments of Trp and Tyr residues in BSA. This research is helpful for understanding the structure-function relationship involved in metal ion-protein bioconjugate process.