Cytoplasmic Carboxylesterases of Human and Domestic Animal Liver: Aggregation, Dissociation and Molecular Weight Estimation

The cytoplasmic carboxylesterases of bovine, ovine, equine and human liver were fractionated by starch gel electrophoresis and by gel filtration on Sephadex. While species-specific, heterogeneous bands were observed in starch gel, the esterases of the bovine, ovine and equine liver were eluted from Sephadex G-100 as single peaks of activity, each with a characteristic elution volume. Gel filtration of human liver extracts yielded two peaks of activity, one containing electrophoretically slow esterases, the other electrophoretically fast esterases. Extracted equine and human hepatic carboxylesterases aggregated readily on storage or concentration, forming larger units which could be dissociated by a combination of acidic pH and high salt concentration. Molecular weight estimates of the hepatic esterases by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and G-200 yielded values of 65 000 for ovine, 55 000 for bovine, 96 000 and 70 000 for equine variants and 180 000 and 65 000 for human variants. The observations suggested that the cytoplasmic enzymes in relatively crude hepatic extracts had a lower molecular weight than those in concentrated or partially purified preparations which formed stable dimers or trimers.