Cloud-point temperatures of lysozyme in electrolyte solutions by thermooptical analysis technique.

Liquid-liquid phase-separation data are obtained for aqueous solutions of lysozyme. Thermooptical analysis (TOA) technique overcomes many defects of the light scattering method, which is most commonly used for this purpose, and provides a simple, rapid and reliable experimental method to determine cloud-point temperatures (CPTs) of aqueous protein solution systems. The TOA apparatus described here needs very small amount of samples (0.02 ml), and CPT can easily be determined in a very short time. The CPTs are measured as a function of salt type and concentration at pH 4.0 and 7.0. Salts used include those from mono and divalent cations and anions, and the modified Perturbed-Hard-Sphere-Chain (PHSC) model that takes into account the shape of protein is used to interpret the effect of salts.