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Fluorescent Leakage Assay to Investigate Membrane Destabilization by Cell-Penetrating Peptide
Published on: December 19, 2020
Phenylalanine Blocks Defects Induced in Gel Lipid Membranes by Osmotic Stress
1Laboratorio de Biointerfases y Sistemas Biomiméticos, Laboratorios Centrales, Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia Santiago del Estero, Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero, CP 4206 Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
Abstract:
We study the binding of phenylalanine (Phe) with dipalmitoylphosphocholine (DPPC) vesicles in gel (25 °C) and in liquid crystalline states (50 °C) and in gel large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) subjected to osmotic dehydration with merocyanine (MC 540) as a fluorescent surface membrane marker. Phe does not produce significant changes in MC 540 monomer concentration in DPPC LUVs at 50 °C. In contrast, it significantly decreases the monomer adsorption in defects present in DPPC LUVs at 25 °C. When DPPC LUVs were subjected to hypertonic stress, dehydration caused more defects, and in this case phenylalanine is also able to block such defects.
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