Behaviour of BSA and of BSA-derivatives at the air/water interface

Native bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been chemical modified (glycation with glucose and maltose or acetylation) in order to change the functional properties, especially the foaming behaviour and foam stability. These protein foams are used to generate porous ceramics made by a special protein foaming method to alter the microstructure of these ceramics. The adsorption as well as the rheological properties from protein solutions of BSA and some derivatives of BSA have been investigated. Acetylation of the protein increased the surface activity, and also other chemical modifications showed remarkable influences. The modification changed only slightly the rheological properties as compared to the native BSA protein. Remarkable differences can be shown for slow oscillations of the interface. These results particularly underline the enhanced molecular flexibility of the acetylated BSA. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.