Comparison of heat-induced aggregation of globular proteins

Typically, heat-induced aggregation of proteins is studied using a single protein under various conditions (e.g., temperature). Because different studies use different conditions and methods, a mechanistic relationship between molecular properties and the aggregation behavior of proteins has not been identified. Therefore, this study investigates the kinetics of heat-induced aggregation and the size/density of formed aggregates for three different proteins (ovalbumin, β-lactoglobulin, and patatin) under various conditions (pH, ionic strength, concentration, and temperature). The aggregation rate of β-lactoglobulin was slower (>10 times) than that of ovalbumin and patatin. Moreover, the conditions (pH, ionic strength, and concentration) affected the aggregation kinetics of β-lactoglobulin more strongly than for ovalbumin and patatin. In contrast to the kinetics, for all proteins the aggregate size/density increased with decreasing electrostatic repulsion. By comparing these proteins under these conditions, it became clear that the aggregation behavior cannot easily be correlated to the molecular properties (e.g., charge and exposed hydrophobicity).