title: Depletion interaction of casein micelles and an exocellular polysaccharide.
abstract: Casein micelles become mutually attractive when an exocellular polysaccharide produced by Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris NIZO B40 (hereafter called EPS) is added to skim milk. The attraction can be explained as a depletion interaction between the casein micelles induced by the nonadsorbing EPS. We used three scattering techniques (small-angle neutron scattering, turbidity measurements, and dynamic light scattering) to measure the attraction. In order to connect the theory of depletion interaction with experiment, we calculated structure factors of hard spheres interacting by a depletion pair potential. Theoretical predictions and all the experiments showed that casein micelles became more attractive upon increasing the EPS concentration.
authors.affiliation: NIZO Food Research, P.O. Box 20, 6710 BA Ede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tuinier
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: ten Grotenhuis
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Timmins
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: de Kruif
mesh_terms: D002364:Caseins / Q000737:chemistry*; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D004578:Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; D013294:Lactococcus lactis / Q000378:metabolism; D008027:Light; D008823:Micelles; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation
chemical_list: D002364:Caseins; D008823:Micelles; D011134:Polysaccharides