The influence of branching on the radius of gyration and the hydrodynamic radius of dextran macromolecules was studied by elastic and quasielastic light scattering (ELS and QELS). The hydrodynamic radius is more sensitive to low levels of branching than the radius of gyration. At higher branching levels a saturation of the hydrodynamic radius r, is observed, while the radius of gyration 'G still changes distinctly. The ratio rG/rh proves to be a measure of the flexibility of the macromolecules; the latter is increasing with molecular weight for short linear chains and is decreasing with increasing degree of branching. Measurements were carried out in water (thermodynamically good solvent) and in ethylene glycol (under theta conditions) on four series of dextran fractions having rather narrow molecular weight distributions.

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