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Hard sphere-like glass transition in eye lens α-crystallin solutions

  • Foffi, Giuseppe Laboratoire de Physique de Solides, UMR 8502, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
  • Savin, Gabriela Physics Department and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Bucciarelli, Saskia Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden
  • Dorsaz, Nicolas Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Thurston, George M. School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, USA
  • Stradner, Anna Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden
  • Schurtenberger, Peter Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden
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    25.11.2014
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 2014, vol. 111, no. 47, p. 16748–16753
English We study the equilibrium liquid structure and dynamics of dilute and concentrated bovine eye lens α-crystallin solutions, using small-angle X-ray scattering, static and dynamic light scattering, viscometry, molecular dynamics simulations, and mode-coupling theory. We find that a polydisperse Percus–Yevick hard-sphere liquid-structure model accurately reproduces both static light scattering data and small-angle X-ray scattering liquid structure data from α-crystallin solutions over an extended range of protein concentrations up to 290 mg/mL or 49% vol fraction and up to ca. 330 mg/mL for static light scattering. The measured dynamic light scattering and viscosity properties are also consistent with those of hard-sphere colloids and show power laws characteristic of an approach toward a glass transition at α-crystallin volume fractions near 58%. Dynamic light scattering at a volume fraction beyond the glass transition indicates formation of an arrested state. We further perform event-driven molecular dynamics simulations of polydisperse hard-sphere systems and use mode-coupling theory to compare the measured dynamic power laws with those of hard-sphere models. The static and dynamic data, simulations, and analysis show that aqueous eye lens α-crystallin solutions exhibit a glass transition at high concentrations that is similar to those found in hard-sphere colloidal systems. The α-crystallin glass transition could have implications for the molecular basis of presbyopia and the kinetics of molecular change during cataractogenesis.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Physique
Language
  • English
Classification
Physics
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/304063
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