The unfolding of bovine heart cytochrome c induced by urea and guanidine hydrochloride was studied through their intrinsic fluorescence emission spectra, fluorescence phase diagrams, fluorescence quenching, size-exclusion chromatographies, native polyacrylamide gel electrophoreses and deactivation profiles. The results showed that during their unfolding in urea and guanidine hydrochloride solutions, bovine heart cytochrome c molecules existed only in a unimolecular form and their bi-molecular and/or poly-molecular aggregates and aggregate precipitates were not formed all along. When the urea and guanidine hydrochloride concentrations in denaturation solution were separately about 6.0 and 3.0 mol/L, they could be completely deactivated and almost all of the tryptophan residues originally embedded in the interior of their molecules were exposed to the surface of their molecules. Different from the unfolding of the most often used horse heart cytochrome c, that of bovine heart cytochrome c induced by urea and guanidine hydrochloride was separately a completely co-operative procedure and followed a two-state model.
Transitions among various molecule states and conformational changes of bovine insulin were investigated under different denaturing conditions by means of fluorescence phase diagrams,fluorescence quenching,1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonate（ANS） binding assay and circular dichroism（CD） spectra.In both guanidine hydrochloride（GuHCl）-and urea-denatured procedures,the spatial structure of insulin molecules changed from ordered states to relative unordered ones with the increasing of denaturant concentration.The GuHCl-denatured process followed a four-state model,for there were two intermediates existed in 2.0 and 6.0 mol/L GuHC1,respectively.Intermediate I1 is more compact than the normal protein.And intermediate I2 has lost most of the secondary structures.When GuHCl concentration was above 6.0 mol/L,the fluorophores originally existed in the internal of insulin molecules would expose to the surface.However,the urea-denatured process followed a three-state model,only one intermediate existed in 2.5 mol/L urea.During the urea-denatured procedure,the fluorophores originally existed in theinternal of insulin molecules didn＇t expose to the surface.
