The Distribution of Soluble Copper- and Zinc-binding Proteins in Goat Liver

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Abstract
The distributions of Cu and Zn in the soluble proteins from goat liver after gel filtration were determined. Samples from normal slaughtered animals and from experimentally Cu-loaded goats were tested. The Cu- and Zn-binding proteins were mainly separated into 3 different fractions. The approximate MW were > 65,000, 35,000 and 10,000. Varying amounts of Zn were eluted in a 4th fraction of MW less than 2000. The results indicate that the distribution of Cu and Zn among soluble metal-binding proteins are highly dependent on the total liver Zn concentration. In the majority of samples, with Zn levels within 20-45 .mu.g/g wet weight [w.w.], the dominating Cu- and Zn-binding protein fraction was the high-MW fraction. This did not seem to be influenced by the total liver Cu level. In the samples with high total liver Zn levels (> 60 .mu.g/g w.w.) there was a shift in protein distribution of both metals toward the low-MW fractions.