Formation of Lysozyme- dextran conjugates through microwave heating

Application of lysozyme as a natural antimicrobial or preservative agent in food and pharmaceutical industry is well known. The antimicrobial effects of lysozyme can be expanded by conjugation with carbohydrates via Maillard reaction, however this natural reaction is a time consuming process. So in this study a new method microwave heating, was applied to Accelerate the Maillard reaction. Lysozyme was mixed with dextran and heated by microwave irradiation. The glycation extent was determined by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, cation-exchange chromatography and sugar analysis. SDS-page pattern show that with increasing heating time a high molecular weight conjugates were appeared and maximum glycosylation was occurred after 4 minutes heating. The elution profiles (chromatograms) of the lysozyme–dextran conjugates compared the natural lysozyme showed that the conjugated peak shifted towards the higher molecular weight fraction and overlapped with the non conjugated proteins, indicated that lysozyme was covalently bound to dextran. These results suggest that Maillard reaction rate can be increase using microwave heating.