Protein interactions, phospholipid poly

It is largely accepted that a high dietary intake of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the co-3 series has beneficial effects. Recently, cellular Hpid metabolism has been suggested as a target for cancer therapy. Cancer cells, compared with normal cells, seem to be vulnerable to exposure of certain polyunsaturated fatty adds (PUFAs), especially those in the to-3 series. Characteristic for these compounds are their poor ability to be oxidized in the cell due to multiple double bonds. They are however likely to be ester-ified to other lipids, and their incorporation into membrane phospholipids will influence membrane properties such as fluidity, protein interactions and susceptibility to lipid peroxidation. The hypolipidemic properties of some (o-3 fatty acids, such as EPA, are probably explained by an induction of mitochondrial 3 -oxidation that is not found after administration of the non-hypolipidemic (o-3 PUFA docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, both eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and DHA cause increased peroxisomal... 

It has already been emphasized that apoptotic cells can be both, the source of oxidized phospholipids as well as the initiators of apoptosis. Oxidation of (poly)-unsaturated phospholipids leads to a large variety of oxidation products (see Chapter 1 and (Fruhwirth et al., 2007)). These compounds may have very different chemical structures. It can be anticipated that they exert very different physical effects in membranes and undergo specific interactions with their target proteins and lipids. As a consequence, the great variety of oxidized phospholipids should be reflected by a corresponding diversity of biological effects. In many studies investigating cell survival and/or cell death, the effects of oxidized lipid... 

To reduce the hydrophobic mismatch, either the structure of membrane protein or the lipid membrane has to be altered [12]. In this chapter, QCM-D is used to investigate the adsorption of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with different hydrophobic end groups onto the phospholipid membranes to clarify the hydro-phobic interactions between the end group of polymer chains and the core of hpid membranes. 

---