Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy in the study of the interaction between hyaluronan and positively charged surfactants

Abstract

The interaction between fluorescently labeled hyaluronan and cationic surfactants was studied using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy. The hyaluronan was selected at two different molecular weights – specifically, 274 kDa and 710 kDa. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and Septonex® were chosen as cationic surfactants to interact with the negatively charged biopolymer. The study focused on changes in the diffusive behavior of a biopolymer that interacts with surfactant molecules in an aqueous environment. Various methods were applied to evaluate the obtained data, these including, among others, the Maximum Entropy Method, which provides the distributional dependences of diffusion coefficients. Without the surfactant, the studied biopolymers showed diffusion behavior comparable to that found in previously published studies. In the presence of surfactants, more intense interaction was observed between Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and Septonex®. Comparing the molecular weights, the retention of intermolecular aggregates after the precipitation region for the lower weight and the disintegration of these aggregates for the higher weight were observed; moreover, they showed diffusion behavior comparable to the samples without the presence of the surfactant.