Excess adsorption of biomolecules on soft surfaces: Adsorption of DNA, proteins and lactose on fatty surfaces

Insoluble fatty surfaces are involved in many important interactions such as in biomembranes with soluble biological macro and micromolecules. In this paper we have studied the adsorption interaction of aqueous solution of DNA, some proteins and lactose on several sparingly soluble fatty substances namely milk fat, stearic acid, palmitic acid, phosphatidyl choline and cholesterol surfaces by measuring the depletion of the adsorbates by analytical methods. Adsorption () of DNA on the soft surfaces of stearic acid, milk fat, phosphatidyl choline, palmitic acid and cholesterol was measured as a function of DNA concentration C₂. In each case was found to increase with C₂ until it reached the maximum value at a critical concentration . For different surfaces stands in the order: stearic acid > milk fat > phosphatidyl choline > cholesterol > palmitic acid. DNA forms multilayers on stearic acid surface. Adsorption of hemoglobin on cholesterol surface is found to be negative or zero but that of BSA on cholesterol is positive. Adsorption of gelatin on cholesterol surface is significantly higher than that of BSA. Lysozyme on cholesterol surface forms multilayers and on casein forms bilayer. The lowering of free energies ?DG^o for all systems have been calculated using integrated form of the Gibbs adsorption and their values have been compared with each other. It is concluded that despite differences in the adsorption behavior of the biomolecules on various soft surfaces, free energy change expressed as Bull’s free energy change (Δ) remain nearly constant except for BSA-fatty acid interaction which may be likely due a specific