Physical Review Letters 2014-01-17

Reentrant liquid-liquid phase separation in protein solutions at elevated hydrostatic pressures.

Johannes Möller, Sebastian Grobelny, Julian Schulze, Steffen Bieder, Andre Steffen, Mirko Erlkamp, Michael Paulus, Metin Tolan, Roland Winter

Index: Phys. Rev. Lett. 112(2) , 028101, (2014)

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Abstract

We present results from small-angle x-ray scattering data on the effect of high pressure on the phase behavior of dense lysozyme solutions in the liquid-liquid phase separation region, and characterize the underlying intermolecular protein-protein interactions as a function of temperature and pressure in this region of phase space. A reentrant liquid-liquid phase separation region has been discovered at elevated pressures, which originates in the pressure dependence of the solvent-mediated protein-protein interactions.