Hsa Particle Size Characterization by Afm

The atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a technique that has extensively been used to reveal details on surfaces using different scanning techniques. The human blood components, Human Serum Albumin (HSA) being one of them, as opposed to hard condensed matter samples, are soft and do not adhere well to surfaces, therefore imaging and analyzing soft condensed matter samples using AFM requires certain precautions and special care. This article presents details on using AFM for imaging and size characterization of the HSA. The results suggest that the HSA molecule has an average size of 36 nm, support the ellipsoid model for the molecule shape and indicate that on mica substrate the HSA molecule does not have a specific orientation.