Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
602106 Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 2009 5 Pages PDF
Abstract

The adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on fused silica at pH 4.7 was studied at the single molecules level by total-internal-reflection fluorescence microscopy. This pH value was the isoelectric point of BSA. At low [BSA] of 20 pM, protein molecules adsorbed as monomers. At intermediate [BSA] of 500 pM, protein molecules adsorbed as clusters of about five monomers on average. Both monomers and clusters had adsorption rate coefficients of the order 10−7 m s−1 and desorption rate coefficients of about 2 × 10−2 s−1. The respective steady-state coverage was about 10× higher than that at neutral pH, presumably because of the more favorable BSA–silica electrostatics. At pH 4.7 and with [BSA] higher than 100 nM, adsorption begot further adsorption to produce nonlinear isotherms. The coverage at 1 μM BSA was 2.5× that of the linearly extrapolated coverage. This suggests that at pH 4.7, solute–adsorbate affinity was the dominant factor that explains the enhanced adsorption observed in ensemble measurements.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Chemical Engineering Colloid and Surface Chemistry
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