The predicted response surfaces shown in Figure indicated an antagonistic relationship between DS and enzymatic digestibility within the experimental design range and can be used to interpret the tunability of biodegradation based on acetylation conditions. Predicted DS increased toward high pyridine ratios and long reaction times, which considerably decreased the enzyme-catalysed hydrolytic weight loss compared to the non-treated reference sample and bulk DS samples in the range below 0.2. Thus, there clearly is a narrow window where there is fine control over the rate of enzyme-catalysed hydrolytic weight loss, with longer digestion times out of the range and, most likely, predictive accuracy of this protocol.