Crystallization of proteins

Abstract

Protein crystals are of interest for several fields of science and technology. Their formation underlies several human pathological conditions. An example is the crystallization of hemoglobin C and the polymerization of hemoglobin S that cause, respectively, the CC and sickle cell diseases (Charache et al. 1967; Hirsch et al. 1985; Eaton and Hofrichter 1990; Vekilov 2007). The formation of crystals and other protein condensed phases of the so-called crystallines in the eye lens underlies the pathology of cataract formation (Berland et al. 1992; Asherie et al. 2001). A unique example of benign protein crystallization in humans and other mammals is the formation of rhombohedral crystals of insulin in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. The suggested function of crystal formation is to protect the insulin from the proteases present in the islets of Langerhans and to increase the degree of conversion of the soluble proinsulin (Dodson and Steiner 1998).