title: Liquid/gas and liquid/liquid phase equilibria of the system water/bovine serum albumin.
abstract: The thermodynamic behavior of the system H2O/BSA was studied at 25 °C within the entire composition range: vapor pressure measurements via head space sampling gas chromatography demonstrate that the attainment of equilibria takes more than one week. A miscibility gap was detected via turbidity and the coexisting phases were analyzed. At 6 °C the two phase region extends from ca. 34 to 40 wt % BSA; it shrinks upon heating. The polymer rich phase is locally ordered, as can be seen under the optical microscope using crossed polarizers. The Flory-Huggins theory turns out to be inappropriate for the modeling of experimental results. A phenomenological expression is employed which uses three adjustable parameters and describes the vapor pressures quantitatively; it also forecasts the existence of a miscibility gap.
authors.affiliation: N M Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Yurij
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Antonov
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eckelt
authors.forename: Rei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sugaya
authors.forename: Bernhard A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Wolf
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine