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. 1983 Sep 1;213(3):671–677. doi: 10.1042/bj2130671

Study of hyaluronic acid flexibility by electric birefringence.

H H Trimm, B R Jennings
PMCID: PMC1152182  PMID: 6615453

Abstract

Transient-electric-birefringence experiments were conducted on four samples of hyaluronic acid over the molecular-mass (M) range 5 X 10(4)-4 X 10(6) in dilute aqueous solution. The geometrical, optical and electrical characteristics were monitored via the rotary relaxation times, optical-polarizability antisotropies and electrical polarizabilities respectively. Each indicates the molecular conformation to be consistent with some degree of rigidity at low M but that this does not persist at high M. The molecules do not become true random coils, but are best characterized in terms of a persistence length of 20 nm or 20 disaccharide units.

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Selected References

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