Influence of denaturation and aggregation of β-lactoglobulin on its tryptic hydrolysis and the release of functional peptides

Whereas previous studies showed that thermal pre-treatment of whey proteins promote their enzymatic hydrolysis, to date no correlation between the conformation of denatured protein and the release of individual peptides has been considered. Hence, in this study total denaturation of β-lactoglobulin was performed at defined pH-values to enable the generation of different denatured particles. The denatured proteins were used as substrate for tryptic hydrolysis and the hydrolysis progress was characterised by the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the release of functional peptides, detected using LC-ESI-TOF/MS. Denaturation and subsequent aggregation of β-lactoglobulin, induced by thermal treatment at pH 5.1, altered the DH slightly, whereas the release of investigated peptides was significantly decreased. Contrary, denaturation at pH 6.8 and 8.0 led to formation of non-native monomers and reduced the DH to 75%, but showed promoting as well as reducing effects on the release of peptides, depending on their location within the protein.