Steric considerations, protein adsorption

Due to steric considerations, n will generally be a lower number than in the free ligand case. For the adsorption of proteins on a solid surface, the total ligand concentration is usually represented as the actual surface area of the adsorbent. In studies utiliz-... 

A segment perpendicular to a surface results in an effective steric barrier, while the number of contact points with the interface influences the strength of adsorption. For example, flexible caseins have numerous proline residues, so they have little ordered secondary structure and no intramolecular crosslink. As a result, caseins are able to adopt a number of different conformational states when being adsorbed at the oil-water interface. They are usually adsorbed at the interface in such a way that considerable portions of their structures protruding into the aqueous phase are available (Dickinson, 1992). On the other hand, serum milk proteins, such as p-lg and a-lactalbumin (a-la), bind relatively close to the interface and do not protrude... 

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