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Phase transitions in phospholipid monolayers at the air—water interface: A fluorescence study
Author(s) -
Teissié J.,
Tocanne J.F.,
Baudras A.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(76)80740-5
Subject(s) - chemistry , phospholipid , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , biochemistry , membrane
In the last few years, fluorescent probes have proved to be powerful tools in elucidating several aspects of the dynamics of phospholipids in biomembranes. The main body of investigation has been carried out either on biomembranes [ 1,2 ] or on membrane models such as phospholipid dispersions in water (liposomes) [3-51. In these materials, it is extremely difficult to have any control on the molecular packing of the phospholipids. Instead, monomolecular films of lipids spread at the air-water interface are interesting membrane models from this point of view since molecular packing is easily controlled in addition to temperature, subphase pH and ionic strength and composition. The aim of this paper is to report on fluorescence experiments on lipid monolayers at the air-water interface using an apparatus specially designed in our laboratory. Transitions from liquid-crystal to gel phase of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine have been revealed by using the fluorescent probes DPE, DPH and AS*. The phase-dependent fluorescence properties observed can be accounted for by environment modifications and/or reorientations of the probes and are discussed with regard to data already inferred from experiments on phospholipid dispersions in water.