Taurocholate and taurodeoxycholate: Gel formation and protonation constants

Taurocholate (TC) and taurodeoxycholate (TDC) in aqueous solutions, in the presence of sodium and hydrogen ions can give micellar products, even differently protonated. This phenomenon is investigated in this paper to explain whether the assumption of hydrogen ions is to attribute to the micellar aggregates, or to the protonation of taurocholate and taurodeoxycholate, respectively. In the course of this research, often the formation of gel occurred immediately after the mixture of the reagents (sodium, hydrogen ions and anions of bile acids) or after some time, depending on the concentrations of the reagents. No author mentions this evidence, but experiments carried out in the presence of gel are not reproducible because the investigated solutions cannot be considered in real equilibrium. The protonation study was performed by means of electromotive force measurements of a galvanic cell involving a glass electrode, at 25°C and 1.00 mol dm-3 NaCl, as ionic medium. The obtained protonation constants had the following values: log k1 = 0.07± 0.02 for TC and log k’1 = 1.60 ± 0.03 for TDC.