Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Insulin assembly
It can be seen from the structure that the CrSalen complex is involved in assembling three monomers (trimer) of Q-VD(OMe)-OPh (Fig. 4A) around the B21 Glu residue. This is different from the 2 zinc insulin structure, where the zinc ion assembles six monomers (hexamer) around B10 His (Fig. 4B). Both these assemblies are generated along their respective threefold rotation axis. This difference in assembly (though primarily due to the adopted space group), which is linked to the insulin storage and release, may be one of the causes for the observed enhancement in the activity of insulin in the presence of CrSalen.
Fig. 4.
(A) The six monomers in the cubic insulin structure, indicating a trimer formation near the B21 Glu residue (side chains shown in black sticks). (B) The same in a 2 zinc structure showing the hexamer formation around the B10 His. The positions of chromium (A) and zinc (B) in the six insulin monomers are shown as balls.
Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide