The interaction of triethyltin with a component of guinea-pig liver supernatant. Evidence for histidine in the binding sites.

A protein fraction was isolated from guinea-pig liver that binds triethyltin with an affinity of approx. 2x10(6)m(-1) at pH8.0. It was shown that the protein responsible for binding 70% of the triethyltin found in guinea-pig liver after injection of radioactively labelled triethyltin is at most a few per cent of the total liver protein. Evidence is presented from the kinetics of loss of binding and loss of certain amino acids on photo-oxidation with either Methylene Blue or Rose Bengal that each binding site consists of two histidine residues.