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Bovine serum albumin was found to have an inhibitory effect on acid DNase from rat small intestinal mucosa. The inhibitory activity showed pH-dependency. Thus, the highest inhibition was observed at about pH 4.3 but conversely the enzyme was activated at about pH 4.7. The inhibitory effect was heat-inactivated most strongly at about pH 5, but at more acidic or alkaline pHs, no inactivation was observed. Inhibitory activities of serum albumin of various species were comparable with that of bovine serum albumin. Acid DNases from guinea pig kidney and small intestinal mucosa and from rat spleen and kidney were similarly inhibited by the albumin. The acid DNase displays typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics but the kinetics became sigmoidal in the presence of the inhibitor. With increasing inhibitor concentration, the sigmoidal shape became more pronounced, and at high concentration, the DNA was able to compete with the inhibitor and to reverse its action. Among the cyanogen bromide-cleaved fragments of bovine serum albumin, fragment C (derived from the carboxyl-terminal two-thirds of the albumin) had an inhibitory effect comparable to that of intact bovine albumin, but fragment N (derived from the amino-terminal one-third of the albumin) had no activity. Reduced fragment C showed a markedly decreased effect and lost the activity completely after separation into its three component peptides. Acetylation of bovine serum albumin completely destroyed its inhibitory activity.

Guinea pig epidermal DNAase I was purified from an epidermal extract by a procedure including DEAE-cellulose chromatography, Sephadex G-100 gel filtration and Con A-Sepharose affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme contained no detectable activities of acid DNAase, alkaline RNAase, phosphodiesterase or acid or alkaline phosphatase, but was contaminated with acid RNAase activity. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 33 000 by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and Sephadex G-100 gel filtration. Its isoelectric point is 5.2 +/- 0.1. The enzyme requires divalent cations and exhibits two pH optima that are dependent on divalent cations: in the presence of Mn2+, the optimum pH is about 7.5 in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer and in the presence of Mn2+, the pH is 6.4 in 50 mM cacodylate-HCl buffer. The enzyme hydrolyzes native DNA about 6-times faster than denatured DNA, producing 5'-phosphoryl and 3'-hydroxyl terminated oligonucleotides with an average chain length of about eight nucleotides, and converts double-stranded and circular DNA to relaxed and linear forms. The enzyme is inhibited by G-actin and antiserum against bovine pancreatic DNAase A. Thus this enzyme is classified as DNAase I.

An acid deoxyribonuclease has been purified from rat small intestinal mucosa by a procedure including ammonium sulfate fractionation, chromatographies on DEAE-cellulose, CM-cellulose and SE-Sephadex and finally isoelectric focusing. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the purified enzyme preparation showed one major and two minor bands, and the enzyme activity corresponded to one of the minor bands. The enzyme preparation was free of contaminating DNase I, DNase III, alkaline RNase, acid and alkaline phosphatases and nonspecific phosphodiesterase, but slight activities of DNase IV and acid RNase were detected. The enzyme did not require divalent cations for activity, had a pH optimum of 4.5 in 0.33 M sodium acetate buffer, and had an optimum temperature of 50 to 60 degrees C when assayed for 30 min. The rate of hydrolysis of native DNA was about 2.5-fold faster than that observed with denatured DNA. Its molecular weight was found to be 9.0 +/- 0.1. The enzyme catalyzes the endonucleolytic cleavage of native and denatured DNA, yielding oligonucleotides which have an average chain length of about 7, and which contain 3'-phosphoryl termini. The mode of action of the enzyme is double-strand scission.