Characterization of zigzag patterns on the surface of bovine serum albumin films

Abstract

Analysis of the patterns formed during the drying of biological fluids is employed for research and diagnosis in medicine and agriculture. Saline solutions of native proteins and DNA are characterized by zigzag patterns, which could be quantitatively described using the specific length of zigzags L_specific. The aim of this study was to analyze a wide number of characteristics in order to identify those most sensitive to the effects of various physical and chemical factors on the protein structure. We examined the films prepared from salt solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) under varying conditions, viz.: a proportional change in the concentration of the components, substitution of NaCl with NaF and NaBr, temperature treatment, gamma irradiation, and addition of trivalent iron and biologically active flavin mononucleotide. The results revealed that the distribution of zigzag segment lengths was approximately lognormal, and the distribution of angles between the segments was approximately logistic. Two parameters appeared to be the most informative, viz. the average length of the segments, mainly depending on Cl^– concentration, and the number of segments, depending on: Cl^– concentration, concentration of the non-aggregated (but not necessarily unfragmented) protein, and the excess concentration of ions and low molecular weight compounds.