Shear is present in almost all bioprocesses and high shear is associated with processes involving agitation and emulsification. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of high shear and high shear rate on proteins. Two concentric cylinder-based shear systems were used. One was a closed concentric-cylinder shear device (CCSD) and the other was a homogenizer with a rotor/stator assembly. Mathematical modeling of these systems allowed calculation of the shear rate and shear. The CCSD generated low shear rates (a few hundred s(-1)), whereas the homogenizer could generate very high shear rates (> 10(5) s(-1)). High shear could be achieved in both systems by increasing the processing time. Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) and recombinant human deoxyribonuclease (rhDNase) were used as the model proteins in this study. It was found that neither high shear nor high shear rate had a significant effect on protein aggregation. However, a lower melting temperature and enthalpy were detected for highly sheared rhGH by using scanning microcalorimetry, presumably due to some changes in protein's conformation. Also, SDS-PAGE indicated the presence of low molecular-weight fragments, suggesting that peptide bond breakage occurred due to high shear. rhDNase was relatively more stable than rhGH under high shear. No conformational changes and protein fragments were observed. (c) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.