Light scattering measurements on gangliosides: Dependence of micellar properties on molecular structure and temperature

✍ Scribed by Laura Cantù; Mario Corti; Sandro Sonnino; Guido Tettamanti

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 698 KB
• Volume: 41
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-3084
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-3084(86)90029-0

✦ Synopsis

Static and dynamic laser light scattering measurements on micellar aqueous solutions of gangliosides GM2, GMI, GDIa are reported. The aggregation number, the hydrodynamic radius and the micellar shape depend on the type of ganglioside and the unsaturation degree of the hydrocarbon chains. At a temperature of 25°C the molecular weights of GM2, GM1 and GDla are 740 000, 470 000 and 418 000 DA respectively. A significant decrease of micellar size with temperature has been found for saturated GMI in the region 25°-40°C. The strong sensitivity of the micellar parameters to the ganglioside structure is explained by making reference to some simple model which takes into account geometrical packing considerations.

By measuring the scattered light intensity at low ionic strength of the solution (0.1 30 mE) it was possible to evaluate the ganglioside micellar charge, 100 electronic units for GM2, 48 for GM1 and 60 for GDla.