Temperature directly affects the rate of irradiation-induced mass loss from phosphatidylcholine multilayers.
We monitored the mass thickness of egg yolk phosphatidylcholine multilayers at several temperatures during electron irradiation. The rate of irradiation-induced mass loss was reduced substantially when this specimen was cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature from room temperature. Additional cooling to liquid helium temperature caused an additional reduction of mass-loss rate. The characteristic doses D(1/e), which are the slopes of the logarithm of the differential mass thickness against dose, were approximately 7 x 10(3) e/nm2 at 290 K, 8 x 10(4) e/nm2 at 130 K, and 1.4 x 10(5) e/nm2 at less than 10 K. The fractions of the original mass thickness that remained after arbitrarily high doses were about 69% at 290 K, 72% at 130 K, and 77% at less than 10 K.
Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
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Lamvik
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Magid
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Davilla
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Córdova
D000818:Animals; D004530:Egg Yolk; D004583:Electrons; D008854:Microscopy, Electron / Q000592:standards*; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects*; D013696:Temperature
D010713:Phosphatidylcholines