Electrostatic effects on β-lactoglobulin transitions during heat denaturation as studied by differential scanning calorimetry

This work comprises the study of the thermal treatment of β-lg and its denaturation as a function of pH and ionic strength followed by differential scanning calorimetry. The concentration of protein was 14 (w/v)% in order to study the behaviour of highly concentrated β-lg solutions during heating. The denaturation temperature of β-lg was dependent on both pH and ionic strength, meaning that electrostatic interactions between protein monomers in the native state were important for the denaturation of β-lg. The thermograms from the calorimetric measurements also revealed that the quarternary structure of β-lg at pH-values close to the isoelectric point was influenced by the presence of salt and the nature of the salt (NaCl, KI and LiI). Small exotherms emerged in the thermograms at the low temperature side of the denaturation temperature for β-lg. The presences of these exotherms are probably caused by restructuring of the quarternary structure of native β-lg prior to denaturation, due to dissociation into smaller entities and possible also formation of a liquid crystalline-like structure in the highly concentrated protein solution. The present study provides a contribution to the understanding of the importance of the electrostatic interactions between native β-lg molecules and how different salts and ionic strengths affect the denaturation properties of the protein in concentrated systems.