Studies on the metallothionein polymerization in different buffers

In this paper, the naturally occurred polymerization for rabbit metallothio nein monomers has been studied in different milieu, while leaves out the ag gregation caused by the oxidation of cysteine, since the latter circumstanc e was the result of purification lapsus. After the purification of metallot hionein monomers, dynamic light scattering technique is used to detect the polymerized states of rabbit liver metallothionein I and II in different bu ffers, which is the first systematical detection of polymerized states of M Ts in solutions. The effects of different factors contributing to methothio nein aggregations have been investigated by computational simulations. The calculation results showed that the metallathionein polymerization would be regulated by many factors including electrostatic interactions, hydrophobi c interactions and different ions in buffers. A molecular recognition mecha nism of MTs' polymerization in solutions is proposed on the bases of experi mental results and theoretical calculations.