Studies on the mechanism of bile salt-induced liposomal membrane damage

The damage of phosphatidylcholine membranes by bile salts such as cholate, deoxycholate (DC), chenodeoxycholate (CDC), ursodeoxycholate (UDC), as well as their glyco- and tauroconjugates, and lithocholate (LC) were studied. The permeabilities of liposomes differing in size (700 and 1,700 A in diameter) were determined at increasing bile salt concentrations. The release of entrapped raffinose (3H) (MW: 594) or inulin (3H) (MW: 5,000) was measured by pelleting of the liposomes and subsequent determination of the radioactivities in the supernatant. The release of these uncharged volume markers of different size points to a formation of membrane leaks increasing in size with increasing bile salt concentration. Determination of the membrane damaging threshold concentrations of bile salts demonstrated a higher stability of the smaller liposomes. Incubation of the smaller liposomes with increasing DC concentrations results in a successive substitution of lecithin by DC. The predominantly DC-containing vesicles are of remarkable stability against higher DC concentrations. The damaging properties of bile salts increase with decreasing number of hydroxy groups, with the exception of UDC and its conjugates which are much less membrane toxic than the other dihydroxy bile salts. Conjugation with glycine or taurine slightly enhances the membrane toxicity of bile salts with the exception of UDC. Sulfation of the 3-alpha-hydroxy group of LC reduces the damaging effect to about 10%.