Scaling and continuum percolation model for enzyme-catalyzed gel degradation

Enzyme-catalyzed gel degradation is inherently controlled by diffusion of enzymes in the gel. We report kinetics measurements on the gelatin-thermolysin system, varying solvent viscosity as well as gel and enzyme concentrations. Scaling relations and reduced variables are proposed which are shown to account for the experimental results. Finally, we argue that the nontrivial experimental dependence on enzyme concentration for the degradation time demonstrates that enzyme random walk is self-attracting, leading to a continuum percolation model for gel degradation.