title: Monitoring a mammalian nuclear membrane phase transition by intrinsic ultraweak light emission.
abstract: The first thermodynamic measurements of the intensity of light emission associated with native lipid peroxidation in a biological membrane are described. Kinetics of the radical chain reaction are shown to be sensitive to membrane structural phase and lipid dynamics. This is demonstrated by a novel measurement of a phase transition in the membrane of the intact mammalian nucleus. The apparent activation energies of lipid peroxidation in this system are also obtained for the first time. We suggest that this measurement may be more generally applicable as a method for monitoring membrane phase transitions.
authors.affiliation: Biophoton Project, Research Development Corporation of Japan (JRDC) Sendai.
authors.forename: R Q
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roschger
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Devaraj
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inaba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology; D008297:Male; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000378:metabolism*; D009685:Nuclear Envelope / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D008563:Membrane Lipids; D001205:Ascorbic Acid