Interpretation of the renaturation kinetics of gelatin solutions

Renaturation kinetics of dilute gelatin solutions are studied by optical rotation and u.v. absorption. Comparing initial slopes of renaturation curves for concentrations below 10 mg.ml-1, the rate limiting process appears as the sum of a constant rate intramolecular nucleation and a bimolecular nucleation. To fit the whole renaturation curves, a kinetic model using Monte Carlo calculations was tested, consisting of random nucleation, rapid total propagation and slow reversion depending on the size of helical segment. Mismatch on the final renaturation extent indicates that propagation is more limited than proposed.