The thermal properties of porcine brain tubulin polymerization and denaturation and the efftcts of taxol were studied from 4 ℃ to 115 ℃ with a new highly-sensitive differential scanming calorimeter (Micro DSC Ⅲ, Setaram,France). The DSC results indicated that microtubule polymerization can proceed uia an endothermic process and that taxol could alter the process.A large aggregation peak was found at about 85 ℃ in the course of the denaturation and it disap pcared with adding taxol. The heat flow oscillation was observed during the controlled-temperature experiments and taxol could stabilize the structure of the microtubules so that the oscillation disappezred.
