SOD was treated with chondroitin sulfate as follows. Second, activated CS was isolated on a Sephadex G-25 column equilibrated with the same buffer. Cu,Zn-SOD from rat liver is an oxidoreductase composed of two identical 16 kD subunits. Catalytic activity is attributable to the dimeric SOD molecule but not to a single subunit. According to native electrophoresis, SOD easily self associates.
Arrows correspond to the positions of marker proteins.
Electrostatic interactions initiate the formation of such a complex. The impact of these interactions on the complex formation between SOD and CS was evaluated. The data of Table 1 indicate that electrostatic interactions play a significant role in interaction of the SOD subunits with each other. Increasing the ionic strength of the solution significantly weakens the interactions. This is the next stage of the study.