Purification and characterization of protein Z from rabbit liver cytosol

Protein Z was purified from rabbit liver cytosol by affinity chromatography on oleic acid-agarose and preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. After removal of sodium dodecyl sulfate, the renatured protein was found to bind heme and bilirubin with a Kd of approximately 1 microM which produced large red shifts in their absorption spectra. On isoelectric focusing, rabbit protein Z exhibited two main bands with pI around 6.0.