Journal article

Colloidal characterization and thermodynamic stability of binary eye lens protein mixtures

  • Dorsaz, N. Institut Romand de Recherche Numrique en Physique des Matriaux, (IRRMA) and Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Thurston, G. M. Department of Physics, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, USA
  • Stradner, Anna Adolphe Merkle Institute and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Schurtenberger, Peter Adolphe Merkle Institute and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Foffi, G. Institut Romand de Recherche Numrique en Physique des Matriaux, (IRRMA) and Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
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    10.12.2008
Published in:
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. - 2009, vol. 113, no. 6, p. 1693–1709
English We present a study of binary mixtures of eye lens crystallin proteins. A coarse-grained model of aqueous α- and γ-crystallin mixtures based on molecular dynamics simulations and SANS experiments is proposed. Thermodynamic perturbation theory is implemented to obtain the stability boundaries, or spinodal surface, of the binary mixture in the full parameter space. The stability of these high-concentration crystallin mixtures was found to depend on the α−γ attraction in a manner that is both extremely sensitive and nonmonotonic; stronger or weaker attraction resulted in a spectacularly enhanced instability. The relevance of these mechanisms as possible sources of the alteration of the spatial distribution of the lens proteins encountered in cataract disease is discussed.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
AMI - Soft Nanoscience
Language
  • English
Classification
Physics
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/301230
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