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. 1998 Apr;74(4):1864–1870. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(98)77896-8

Pressure effects on the lateral distribution of cholesterol in lipid bilayers: a time-resolved spectroscopy study.

P Tauc 1, C R Mateo 1, J C Brochon 1
PMCID: PMC1299530  PMID: 9545048

Abstract

The effects of hydrostatic pressure and temperature on the phase behavior and physical properties of the binary mixture palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine/cholesterol, over the 0-40 molar % range of cholesterol compositions, were determined from the changes in the fluorescence lifetime distribution and anisotropy decay parameters of the natural lipid trans-parinaric acid (t-PnA). Pressurized samples were excited with a Ti-sapphire subpicosecond laser, and fluorescence decays were analyzed by the quantified maximum entropy method. Above the transition temperature (T(T) = -5 degrees C), at atmospheric pressure, two liquid-crystalline phases, alpha and beta, are formed in this system. At each temperature and cholesterol concentration below the transition pressure, the fluorescence lifetime distribution pattern of t-PnA was clearly modulated by the pressure changes. Pressure increased the fraction of the liquid-ordered beta-phase and its order parameter, but it decreased the amount of cholesterol in this phase. Palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine/cholesterol phase diagrams were also determined as a function of temperature and hydrostatic pressure.

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Selected References

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