Premium
Monitoring a mammalian nuclear membrane phase transition by intrinsic ultraweak light emission
Author(s) -
Scott R.Q.,
Roschger P.,
Devaraj B.,
Inaba H.
Publication year - 1991
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(91)80733-j
Subject(s) - membrane , kinetics , chemistry , lipid peroxidation , biophysics , phase transition , nucleus , biological membrane , phase (matter) , nuclear membrane , lipid bilayer , light intensity , biochemistry , biology , thermodynamics , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , optics , oxidative stress , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
The first thermodynamic measurements of the intensity of light emission associated with native lipid peroxidation in a biological membrane are described. Kinetics of the radical chain reaction are shown to be sensitive to membrane structural phase and lipid dynamics. This is demonstrated by a novel measurement of a phase transition in the membrane of the intact mammalian nucleus. The apparent activation energies of lipid peroxidation in this system are also obtained for the first time. We suggest that this measurement may be more generally applicable as a method for monitoring membrane phase transitions.