Determination of the glass-transition temperature of proteins from a viscometric approach

All fully hydrated proteins undergo a distinct change in their dynamical properties at glass-transition temperature Tg. To determine indirectly this temperature for dry albumins, the viscosity measurements of aqueous solutions of human, equine, ovine, porcine and rabbit serum albumin have been conducted at a wide range of concentrations and at temperatures ranging from 278 K to 318 K. Viscosity-temperature dependence of the solutions is discussed on the basis of the three parameters equation resulting from Avramov's model. One of the parameter in the Avramov's equation is the glass-transition temperature. For all studied albumins, Tg of a solution monotonically increases with increasing concentration. The glass-transition temperature of a solution depends both on Tg for a dissolved dry protein Tg,p and water Tg,w. To obtain Tg,p for each studied albumin the modified Gordon-Taylor equation was applied. This equation describes the dependence of Tg of a solution on concentration, and Tg,p and a parameter depending on the strength of the protein-solvent interaction are the fitting parameters. Thus determined the glass-transition temperature for the studied dry albumins is in the range (215.4-245.5) K.