Membrane lipids phospholipids

Phosphate ions are constituent parts of two universally found biopolymers, DNA and RNA. Phosphate ion is found in membrane lipids (phospholipids) and associated with the metabolism of many small molecules. The binding of dioxygen by hemoglobin is regulated by local concentrations of H+ (known as the Bohr effect), CO2 concentration, and organic phosphates such as diphos-phoglycerate (DPG), whose structure is shown in Figure 5.1. ... 

Cholesterol is an amphipathic lipid molecule which occurs as a major component of cellular membranes and of lipoproteins. In plasma membraneSj the ratio of cholesterol to the other plasma membrane lipids, phospholipids etc. is about 0.7-0.8 mol/mol, whereas in intracellular membranes it is typically 0.1-0.2 mol/mol. Cholesterol serves as a precursor for various acids and hormones, however, it has also major influence on the membrane function and structure itself. Numerous studies have been performed during the last decades in order to learn about the role of cholesterol But still there is a severe difference of opinion on basic issues such as the location of the cholesterol in the cell membranes and how cholesterol affects various structural features ". ... 

Further investigations were carried out at lipid double layers and at phospholipids of membranes. Lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions were recognized by diazirine labeling (79PNA2595). 

While recent attention has been largely on proteins, it should be borne in mind that membrane fusion ultimately involves the merger of phospholipid bilayers. However, little is known about the specific membrane lipid requirements. When membranes fuse, energetically unfavorable transition states are generated that may require specific lipids and lipid domains for stabilization. Although there is some evidence for a specific influence of lipids on exocytosis, it is still unclear whether specific lipid metabolites are needed or even generated at the site of membrane merger. 

The Major Lipids in Mammalian Membranes Are Phospholipids, Glycosphingolipids, Cholesterol... 

Figure 41-3. Diagrammatic representation of a phospholipid or other membrane lipid. The polar head group is hydrophilic, and the hydrocarbon tails are hydrophobic or lipophilic. The fatty acids in the tails are saturated (S) or unsaturated (U) the former are usually attached to carbon 1 of glycerol and the latter to carbon 2. Note the kink in the tail of the unsaturated fatty acid (U), which is important in conferring increased membrane fluidity.

It should be pointed out that cubic phases, such as the one discussed in this work, frequently occur in lipid-water systems (77), and the concept of using cubic phases as drug vehicles is therefore not limited to the use of monoolein only. From a toxicological stand-point, it is tempting to try to use membrane lipids, such as phospholipids, instead of monoolein for parenteral depot preparations (18-20). 

Two principal routes of passive diffusion are recognized transcellular (la —> lb —> lc in Fig. 2.7) and paracellular (2a > 2b > 2c). Lateral exchange of phospholipid components of the inner leaflet of the epithelial bilayer seems possible, mixing simple lipids between the apical and basolateral side. However, whether the membrane lipids in the outer leaflet can diffuse across the tight junction is a point of controversy, and there may be some evidence in favor of it (for some lipids) [63]. In this book, a third passive mechanism, based on lateral diffusion of drug molecules in the outer leaflet of the bilayer (3a > 3b > 3c), wih be hypothesized as a possible mode of transport for polar or charged amphiphilic molecules. 

Since lipophilic molecules have affinity for both the membrane lipid and the serum proteins, membrane retention is expected to decrease, by the extent of the relative lipophilicities of the drug molecules in membrane lipid versus serum proteins, and by the relative amounts of the two competitive-binding phases [see Eqs. (7.41)-(7.43)]. Generally, the serum proteins cannot extract all of the sample molecules from the phospholipid membrane phase at equilibrium. Thus, to measure permeability under sink conditions, it is still necessary to characterize the extent of membrane retention. Generally, this has been sidestepped in the reported literature. 

FIGURE 10.12 The mole ratio of carotenoid/phospholipid and carotenoid/total lipid (phospholipid + cholesterol) in raft domain (detergent-resistant membrane, DRM) and bulk domain (detergent-soluble membrane, DSM) isolated from membranes made of raft-forming mixture (equimolar ternary mixture of dioleoyl-PC (DOPC)/sphingomyelin/cholesterol) with 1 mol% lutein (LUT), zeaxanthin (ZEA), P-cryptoxanthin (P-CXT), or P-carotene (P-CAR). 

Compound lipids (phospholipids, sphingolipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol and its esters) that make part of the biomembrane are subject to a less active renew-al as compared with triacylglycerides. Their renewal is associated either with the restoration of an impaired portion of the membrane, or with the replacement of a defective molecule by a new one. 

In aqueous systems, membrane lipids may exist in a gel-like solid state or as a two-dimensional liquid. In the case of pure phospholipids, these states interconvert at a well-defined transition temperature, Tc, that increases with alkyl chain length and decreases with introduction of alkyl chain unsaturation. In cell membranes, which have marked heterogeneity in both the polar and nonpolar domains of the bilayer, this state is described as liquid disordered . The presence of sufficient sphingolipids, with... 

Alkyl chain heterogeneities cause cell membrane bilayers to remain in the fluid state over a broad temperature range. This permits rapid lateral diffusion of membrane lipids and proteins within the plane of the bilayer. The lateral diffusion rate for an unconstrained phospholipid in a bilayer is of the order of 1 mm2 s 1 an integral membrane protein such as rhodopsin would diffuse 40nm2 s 1. 

Lipids are transported between membranes. As indicated above, lipids are often biosynthesized in one intracellular membrane and must be transported to other intracellular compartments for membrane biogenesis. Because lipids are insoluble in water, special mechanisms must exist for the inter- and intracellular transport of membrane lipids. Vesicular trafficking, cytoplasmic transfer-exchange proteins and direct transfer across membrane contacts can transport lipids from one membrane to another. The best understood of such mechanisms is vesicular transport, wherein the lipid molecules are sorted into membrane vesicles that bud out from the donor membrane and travel to and then fuse with the recipient membrane. The well characterized transport of plasma cholesterol into cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis is a useful model of this type of lipid transport. [9, 20]. A brain specific transporter for cholesterol has been identified (see Chapter 5). It is believed that transport of cholesterol from the endoplasmic reticulum to other membranes and of glycolipids from the Golgi bodies to the plasma membrane is mediated by similar mechanisms. The transport of phosphoglycerides is less clearly understood. Recent evidence suggests that net phospholipid movement between subcellular membranes may occur via specialized zones of apposition, as characterized for transfer of PtdSer between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum [21]. 

Free arachidonic acid, along with diacylglycerols and free docosahexaenoic acid, is a product of membrane lipid breakdown at the onset of cerebral ischemia, seizures and other forms of brain trauma. Because polyunsaturated fatty acids are the predominant FFA pool components that accumulate under these conditions, this further supports the notion that fatty acids released from the C2 position of membrane phospholipids are major contributors to the FFA pool, implicating PLA2 activation as the critical step in FFA release [1,2] (Fig. 33-6). 

Stimulation of mast cells by peptides [86a] or by compound 48/80 [86a, 200] is not accompanied by an increase in the methylation of membrane lipids. In contrast, IgE-dependent stimulation of the mast cell results in an increase in the methylation of specific membrane phospholipids [200, 201] and IgE-dependent stimulation of histamine release is inhibited by agents that block this enzymatic methylation [200, 201]. 

Mercury is known to exert an effect on the synthesis of membrane lipids. Mercuric chloride produces lipid alteration in pig kidney epithelial cells (LLC-PK, cells), with rapid accumulation of unesterified fatty acids (particularly arachidonic acid) and lysophospholipids and loss of cellular phospholipids... 

The properties of membranes commonly studied by fluorescence techniques include motional, structural, and organizational aspects. Motional aspects include the rate of motion of fatty acyl chains, the head-group region of the phospholipids, and other lipid components and membrane proteins. The structural aspects of membranes would cover the orientational aspects of the lipid components. Organizational aspects include the distribution of lipids both laterally, in the plane of the membrane (e.g., phase separations), and across the membrane bilayer (phospholipid asymmetry) and distances from the surface or depth in the bilayer. Finally, there are properties of membranes pertaining to the surface such as the surface charge and dielectric properties. Fluorescence techniques have been widely used in the studies of membranes mainly since the time scale of the fluorescence lifetime coincides with the time scale of interest for lipid motion and since there are a wide number of fluorescence probes available which can be used to yield very specific information on membrane properties. 

Cardiolipin or diphosphatidyl glycerol is one of the most ancient membrane phospholipids from phylogenic aspects. It is surprising for such a complex molecule as cardiolipin to have evolved as one of the major membrane lipids in prokaryotics, when steroids such as cholesterol and phytosterols did not. In eukaryotic cells, cardiolipin is exclusively localized within the mitochondria where it is particularly emiched in the outer leaflet of the inner membrane. Even though a molecular structure of cardiolipin has been conserved in entire organisms, its biological significance has escaped attention except in the case of anti-cardiolipin auto-antibodies which are clinically associated with the Wasserman reaction. 

It can be seen from Figure 1 that the choline-containing phospholipids, phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin are localized predominantly in the outer monolayer of the plasma membrane. The aminophospholipids, conprising phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine, by contrast, are enriched in the cytoplasmic leaflet of the membrane (Bretcher, 1972b Rothman and Lenard, 1977 Op den Kamp, 1979). The transmembrane distribution of the minor membrane lipid components has been determined by reaction with lipid-specific antibodies (Gascard et al, 1991) and lipid hydrolases (Biitikofer et al, 1990). Such studies have shown that phosphatidic acid, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol-4,5-fc -phosphate all resemble phosphatidylethanolamine in that about 80% of the phospholipids are localized in the cytoplasmic leaflet of the membrane. 

The dynamics of lipid movement between the two leaflets of membrane lipid bilayers has been monitored using a variety of phospholipid analogs. Most of the analogs incorporate a reporter group attached to the C-2 of the glycerol moiety. One common substituent is a florescent-labelled fatty acid to form 1,2-(palmitoyl-N-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-amino-caproyl)... 

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