The Effect of Trifluoroethanol and Glycerol on the Thermal Properties of Collagen Using Optical Displacement-Enhanced Heterodyne Polarimeter

An angular displacement-enhanced heterodyne polarimeter has been employed to investigate the interplay between trifluoroethanol (TFE) and glycerol on the thermal denaturation of type I collagen. The concentration of the collagen solution was fixed at 0.341 (mg/mL), and was heated from 25 °C to 55 °C. TFE solutions with concentrations of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 40% and 80% (v/v) were prepared and the phase change was recorded for the determination of thermal denaturation. It was observed that the thermal denaturation temperature (Td) is decreased with increasing TFE concentration due to the partial cleavage of the triple-helical structure. With TFE concentration higher than 20% (v/v), the degree of optical rotation appears to be nearly the same, reflecting that the collagen triple helices have been completely destructed. Moreover, the addition of glycerol in inhibiting the thermal denaturation of collagen is investigated. It has been shown that glycerol can improve the thermal denaturation of both collagen and TFE-mixed collagen. Experimental results show that, in the presence of 2 M glycerol, the Td of collagen remained at around 41.9 °C, meanwhile the Td of 20% (v/v) TFE-mixed collagen is significantly restored to 32.8 °C.