Observation of interactions of human serum components with transferrin by affinity capillary electrophoresis

Interaction of human transferrin (TF) with human serum components was investigated by affinity capillary electrophoresis. It was found that any peaks of human serum protein fractions did not give migration time change on addition of intact TF to running buffer (50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.5), whereas two peaks belonging to α-globulin fraction showed marked acceleration upon addition of desialylated TF. These results provide strong evidence that the sialic acid residue in TF masks its binding ability to serum proteins. The association constants of desialylated TF to these interactive components, estimated based on the double reciprocal plot of migration time change vs. glycoprotein concentration, were at a high level of 107 M−1. TF is well known as a ferric ion transfer protein, and hence formation of this protein might be changed by ferric ion. The presence of iron(II) played no essential role in this interaction, though its influence was not negligible.