Effect of epicatechin on glycation reaction of human serum albumin in physiological conditions

In order to reveal the effect of epicatechin on protein glycosylation in physiological conditions, human serum albumin and ribose were used to construct Maillard reaction model.Inhibition rate, molecular weight, thermal aggregation, pH, free amino group content and surface hydrophobicity were analyzed in this study. The results showed that epicatechin had an inhibitory effect on glycosylation of human serum albumin, and with the increase of concentration, the inhibition rate of glycosylation increased.When the concentration of epicatechin was 0.04 mol/L, the inhibition rate was close to 80%.The results of molecular weight determination of glycosylation products showed that the molecular of glycosylation products decreased and no polymer was produced after adding the inhibitor. Analysis of the properties of glycosylation products showed that the thermostability of the glycosylation products were poor.The pH, free amino group content and surface hydrophobicity of the glycosylation products increased with the increase of epicatechin concentration, which indicated that glycosylation reaction was inhibited, the properties of the glycosylation products had changed.Therefore, epicatechin can be used as an inhibitor of glycosylation reaction in physiological conditions.