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Branched architecture of fucoidan characterized by dynamic and static light scattering

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Abstract

Branched architecture of fucoidans (sulfated fucose-rich polysaccharides) gained considerable interest in recent years in view of the effect of this branching on fucoidan’s biological activity. The aim of this work was to characterize the branching architecture of the pristine and hydrolyzed fucoidan macromolecules of the marine seaweed Fucus vesiculosus. We studied the influence of the duration of acidic hydrolysis on the fucoidan macromolecules. The structure-sensitive ratios of macromolecular radii, obtained by dynamic and static (SLS) light scattering, and capillary viscometry corresponded to spherical form of the macromolecules, indicating their branched architecture. The structure-sensitive ratios were analyzed with respect to the molecular weight distributions obtained by size-exclusion chromatography. The Kratky representation of the angular dependences of SLS intensity provided a spectacular evidence for the fucoidans’ branching. For the first time, the fucoidans’ branching was characterized quantitatively by fitting the scattering form factor developed for hyperbranched macromolecules. Under acidic hydrolysis, the molecular mass and size of the fucoidan macromolecules decreased, but the globular form of macromolecules remained unchanged. Upon increasing the time of the acidic hydrolysis, the ζ-potential of the fucoidans changed from − 14 to − 27 mV. The hydrolyzed fucoidans, in turn, exhibited pronounced polyelectrolyte expansion in aqueous solutions when compared with the unhydrolyzed one.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to our colleagues from the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, E.N. Vlasova for recording the FTIR spectra of fucoidans; Dr. N.V. Dubashynskaya for measuring the ζ-potential; and E.N. Pavlova for measuring the HPSEC chromatograms.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science via a State program AAA-A16-116071450046-9.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Ekaterina R. Gasilova & Yury A. Skorik

  2. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute named by B.P. Konstantinov, NRC “Kurchatov Institute”, Gatchina, Russia

    Irina M. Lapina & Anna A. Kulminskaya

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  1. Ekaterina R. Gasilova
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  2. Irina M. Lapina
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  3. Anna A. Kulminskaya
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Correspondence to Ekaterina R. Gasilova.

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Gasilova, E.R., Lapina, I.M., Kulminskaya, A.A. et al. Branched architecture of fucoidan characterized by dynamic and static light scattering. Colloid Polym Sci 298, 1349–1359 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-020-04706-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-020-04706-4

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