Swelling and Dissolution of β-Lactoglobulin Gels in Alkali

Effect of N-Ethylmaleimide as a Blocker of Disulfide Crosslinks Formation on the Alkali-Cold Gelation of Whey Proteins

N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) was used to verify that no new disulfide crosslinks were formed during the fascinating rheology of the alkali cold-gelation of whey proteins, which show Sol-Gel-Sol transitions with time at pH > 11.5. These dynamic transitions involve the formation and subsequent destruction of non-covalent interactions between soluble whey aggregates. Therefore, incubation of aggregates with NEM was expected not to affect much the rheology. Experiments show that very little additions of NEM, such as 0.5 mol per mol of protein, delayed and significantly strengthened the metastable gels formed. Interactions between whey protein aggregates were surprisingly enhanced during incubation with NEM as inferred from oscillatory rheometry at different protein concentrations, dynamic swelling, Trp fluorescence and SDS-PAGE measurements.

Alkali cold gelation of whey proteins. Part I: sol-gel-sol(-gel) transitions

The cold gelation of preheated whey protein isolate (WPI) solutions at alkaline conditions (pH>10) has been studied to better understand the effect of NaOH in the formation and destruction of whey protein aggregates and gels. Oscillatory rheology has been used to follow the gelation process, resulting in novel and different gelation profiles with the gelation pH. At low alkaline pH, typical sol-gel transitions are observed, as in many other biopolymers. At pH>11.5, the system gels quickly, after approximately 300 s, followed by a slow degelation step that transforms the gel to a viscous solution. Finally, there is a second gelation step. This results in a surprising sol-gel-sol-gel transition in time at constant gelation conditions. At very high pH (>12.5), the degelation step is very severe, and the second gelation step is not observed, resulting in a sol-gel-sol transition. The first quick gelation step is related to the quick swelling of the WPI aggregates in alkali, as observed from light scattering, which enables the formation of new noncovalent interactions to form a gel network. These interactions are argued to be destroyed in the subsequent degelation step. Disulfide cross-linking is observed only in the second gelation step, not in the first step.