Crystal habits of cubic insulin from porcine pancreas and evaluation of intermolecular interactions by macrobond and EET analyses

Experimental and theoretical investigations of the crystal growth of cubic insulin from porcine pancreas were carried out. Three different crystal habits, cube, cube and dodecahedron, and rhombic dodecahedron forms, were obtained. Judging from the results of macroseeding, the most stable of these forms would be the rhombic dodecahedron surrounded by {1 1 0} faces. Molecular interactions in the crystal were evaluated by the macrobond analysis and electrostatic energy of transfer (EET) analysis. The calculated surface energy of {1 1 0} was lower than {1 0 0} by around 40%, which was consistent with the experimental results. Atomic EET supported the macrobond analysis, where the number of hydrogen bonds was primarily evaluated. At the same time, it was suggested that the parameters of the interaction energies of electrically neutral pairs would be smaller than those of charged pairs. The contribution from the bound water molecules to the crystal stabilization was discussed.