Open Access

Durch fluoreszenz-spektrographische Intensitätsmessungen mit einem aus Laboratoriumsmitteln gebauten, einfachen Fluoreszenzspektrometer wurde die Löslichkeit des carcinogenen Kohlenwasserstoffs 3.4-Benzpyren in verdünnten, wäßrigen Lösungen von β-Lactoglobulin und Milchsäure-Dehydro-genase bestimmt. Die molare Lösungsvermittlung der Proteine für 3.4-Benzpyren ist erheblich größer als die des Koffeins. Die Fluoreszenz des 3.4-Benzpyrens wird in den Proteinlösungen nicht durch molekularen Sauerstoff gelöscht. Das beobachtete Spektrum gleicht demjenigen alkoholischer Lösungen von 3.4-Benzpyren ohne Konzentrationslöschung.

Interactions of eosin with three different substrates, β-lactoglobuline, bovine serum albumin and cysteine, in aqueous solutions of pH 7 under illumination with light of wavelengths 5200—5400 Å are investigated by changes in absorption spectrum characteristics, SH-group activities and phosphorescence intensities. Only with bovine serum albumin the major part of protein conversion, as shown by spectral changes and diminution of SH-groups due to eosin-sensitized photo-oxidation. In β-lactoglobuline an oxidizing photoreaction occurs, by which eosin is vanishing to the same degree as the protein shows loss of SH-groups and spectral alterations indicating attack on aromatic amino acid residues. There is no red shift of the eosin absorption band at 5170 Å as is observed in solutions of bovine serum albumin, where the intensity of phosphorscence is about 100 fold compared with the intensity obtained by solutions of β-lactoglobulin. The aerobic eosin photoreaction in solutions of β-lactoglobulin is faster than aerobic photobleaching of the dye. Still faster is its bleaching photoreaction with cysteine, which is nearly independent of oxygen.

The solvent dependence of the photooxidation of tryptophan and 3,4-benzopyrene in aqueous solutions was studied by quantum yield measurements. When the hydrocarbon is dissolved in aqueous solution of caffeine, the quantum yields indicate a 3,4-benzopyrene photosensitized trypto­phan oxidation instead of a photocooxidation, which is indicated in aqueous solution of sodium dodecylsulfate. The same photosensitized oxidation as in caffeine solution is observed, when urea ( 6 m) is added to the soap solution, while the fluorescence and absorption spectra indicate no change in the solvation state of the hydrocarbon, comparable to the change from hydrophobic solubilization by the detergent to dipole — induced dipole complex solubilization by caffeine. It is concluded that the difference in the reaction pathways is caused by different solvation states of the excited or reacting oxygen. In the discussion of the results it is referred to reactions of inhibitors.

The carcinogenic hydrocarbon 3.4-benzopyrene is soluble in aqueous solutions of different proteins. The solubilities are easily determined by the fluorimetric method. The fluorescence o. the hydrocarbon in the protein solutions is not quenched by molecular oxygen. Nevertheless only in presence of air (oxygen) an irreversible decrease of the fluorescence intensity occurs under irradiation with UV-light of wavelength 366 mμ, which is considerably faster than under nitrogen or in solutions of the hydrocarbon in ethanol or aqueous caffeine. In the systems investigad, a correlation was found between the half-life period of the reaction and the SH-group activities. The participation of protein-SH-Groups in the 3.4-benzopyrene photoreaction is demonstrated by ampèrometric Ag⊕-titrations. The influence of protein denaturation and inhibiting additives on the photoreaction are investigated by the fluorimetric method. Irradiation- and oxygen-dependence of the reaction are analogous to the observations of photodynamic action and skin cancer induction by 3.4-benzopyrene. By 366 mµ irradiation of β-lactoglobuline solutions containing 3.4-benzopyrene the heatdenaturation characteristics of the protein are changed. The same changes are produced without 3.4-benzopyrene by UV-light of the wavelength 280 mµ. Treatment of the β-lactoglobuline solutions with an amount of cigarette smoke, which certainly does not contain 3.4-benzopyrene in sufficient concentration, acts in the same direction. Along with the changes in the protein properties the typical fluorescence of 3.4-benzopyrene vanishes. The hydrocarbon does not act as a catalyst in photodynamic action, but is chemically altered as well as the protein, at least in the system under investigation.