Browsing by Subject "BLG"

In the literature section, knowledge was gathered about β-lactoglobulin, typical heat treatments and what effects they have on milk, sample preparation and the methods used in the practical part. Aim in the laboratory was to create a functional method for evaluating milk and whey samples using native-PAGE and Western blotting methods together with β-lactoglobulin specific antibody. The idea was to create a method able to tell apart and determine the most common treatment levels of milk from even tiny sample volumes. With the method developed in the practical study, it is possible to distinguish raw, pasteurized, ESL and UHT milks. Significant differences were found in the amounts of native and oligomer forms of β-lactoglobulin. The more intense the heat treatment, the less native forms are left on the gel, and there might not be any left in UHT milk. Number of small oligomers first increases from raw to ESL, but decreases again significantly in UHT milk. Almost all the protein in UHT milk is too large to enter the separation gel. Resolving power of the method seems excellent, since mere 2 µg BLG or 3 µl milk is enough to gain results even from thawed samples. In comparison to native-PAGE the antibody has better sensitivity and it gives BLG-specific information from smaller amounts than just the Native-PAGE method. However native-PAGE combined with Western Blotting is quite time consuming and prone to errors, and therefore this method is better suited to long term research purposes rather than daily routine monitoring of hear treatment.