Aging of proteins: isolation and identification of a fluorescent chromophore from the reaction of polypeptides with glucose.

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Abstract
Proteins exposed to glucose over long periods are known to undergo physicochemical changes including crosslinking and formation of brown fluorescent pigments of poorly characterized structure. Acid hydrolysis of both browned poly(L-lysine) and browned bovine serum albumin releases a major fluorescent chromophore, which after alkalinization is extractable into organic solvents and which can be purified by silica gel chromatography. The fluorescence properties of this compound very closely resemble those of the bulk browned polypeptides. By NMR, mass spectroscopy and chemical derivatization, this compound is assigned the structure 2-(2-furoyl)-4(5)-(2-furanyl)-1H-imidazole (FFI). Confirmation was obtained by independent chemical synthesis from furylglyoxal and ammonia. The incorporation of 2 peptide-derived amine N and 2 glucose residues in FFI strongly suggests that peptide-bound FFI precursors are implicated in the crosslinking of proteins by glucose in vivo. This reaction has potential implications in the understanding of glucose-mediated protein modifications and their role in the complications of diabetes and aging.