Effect of crowding by Dextrans in enzymatic reactions
Effect of crowding by Dextrans in enzymatic reactions
I. Pastor, C. Balcells, L. Pitulice, E. Vilaseca, S. Madurga, A. Isvoran, M. Cascante, F. Biophysical Chemistry, 185 (2013) 8
The interior of the living cell is highly concentrated and structured with molecules that have different shapes and sizes. The consequences of such crowding upon enzymatic reactions remain unclear. In this paper we have studied and compared the kinetics of alpha-chymotrypsin, HRP and LDH. These reactions were chosen as model enzymatic processes occurring in different in vitro crowded media. The systems crowding has been built by introducing Dextran of several concentrations and sizes. Our results indicate that the volume occupied by the crowding agent, but not its size, plays an important role on the initial velocity of reactions involving tiny enzymes. However, the enzyme size is another important factor influencing the velocity of the reactions of large enzymes occurring in Dextran crowded media. In this situation, the reaction initial velocity depends on both occupied volume and dimension of the crowding agent that is present in the reaction media.