Isothermal batch calorimetry was applied to study the hydration of proteins. The hydration process was analyzed by the simultaneous monitoring of the excess partial enthalpies of water and the proteins in the entire range of water content. Four unrelated proteins (lysozyme, chymotrypsinogen A, human serum albumin, and β-lactoglobulin) were used as models. The excess partial quantities are very sensitive to the changes in the state of water and proteins. At the lowest water weight fractions (w(1)), the changes of the excess thermochemical functions can mainly be attributed to water addition. A transition from the glassy to the flexible state of the proteins is accompanied by significant changes in the excess partial quantities of water and the proteins. This transition appears at a water weight fraction of 0.06 when charged groups of proteins are covered. Excess partial quantities reach their fully hydrated values at w(1) > 0.5 when coverage of both polar and weakly interacting surface elements is complete. At the highest water contents, water addition has no significant effect on the excess thermochemical quantities. At w(1) > 0.5, changes in the excess functions can solely be attributed to changes in the state of the proteins.

High precision densitometry was applied to study the hydration of proteins. The hydration process was analyzed by the simultaneous monitoring of the excess partial volumes of water and the proteins in the entire range of water content. Five unrelated proteins (lysozyme, chymotrypsinogen A, ovalbumin, human serum albumin, and β-lactoglobulin) were used as models. The obtained data were compared with the excess partial enthalpies of water and the proteins. It was shown that the excess partial quantities are very sensitive to the changes in the state of water and proteins. At the lowest water weight fractions (w(1)), the changes of the excess functions can mainly be attributed to water addition. A transition from the glassy to the flexible state of the proteins is accompanied by significant changes in the excess partial quantities of water and the proteins. This transition appears at a water weight fraction of 0.06 when charged groups of proteins are covered. Excess partial quantities reach their fully hydrated values at w(1) > 0.5 when coverage of both polar and weakly interacting surface elements is complete. At the highest water contents, water addition has no significant effect on the excess quantities. At w(1) > 0.5, changes in the excess functions can solely be attributed to changes in the state of the proteins.

The aim of this study is to simultaneously monitor the excess partial Gibbs energies, enthalpies, and entropies of water and white egg lysozyme and demonstrate how these quantities correlate with the coverage of the protein macromolecules by water molecules. Isothermal calorimetry and water sorption measurements were applied to characterize the hydration dependencies of the excess thermodynamic functions. The excess partial quantities are found to be sensitive to changes in the water and protein states. At the lowest water weight fractions (w1), changes in the excess functions are primarily attributable to the addition of water. The transition of lysozyme from a glassy (rigid) to a flexible (elastic) state is accompanied by significant changes in the excess partial quantities. When the charged groups on the protein are covered, this transition occurs at w1 = 0.05; when the coverage of both polar and weakly interacting surface elements is complete, the excess partial quantities become hydrated at w1 > 0.5. At the highest water content, water addition has no significant effect on the excess quantities. At w1 > 0.5, changes in the excess functions solely reflect changes in the state of the protein.

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