Cholesterol-like effects of a fluorotelomer alcohol incorporated in phospholipid membranes

Fluorocarbon amphiphiles are anthropogenic substances widely used in diverse applications such as food packaging, clothing or cookware. Due to their widespread use and non-biodegradability, these chemicals are now ubiquitous in the natural world with high propensity to bioaccumulate in biological membranes, wherein they may affect microscopic properties. Here, we test the hypothesis that a typical fluorocarbon amphiphile can affect lipid membranes similarly to cholesterol by investigating the effect of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluoro-1-decanol (8:2 FTOH) on 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) membranes. Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and confocal microscopy, we present a consistent set of independent experimental evidences supporting this hypothesis, namely that upon incorporation of 8:2 FTOH, (i) a condensing effect on the acyl chains occurs in the fluid phase, (ii) coexistence of two membrane phases is observed below melting, and (iii) the melting temperature of DPPC varies no more than approximately ±1 °C up to a concentration of 40 mol% of 8:2 FTOH. The condensing effect is quantified by means of advanced dipolar recoupling solid-state NMR experiments and is found to be of approximately half the magnitude of the cholesterol effect at the same concentration.