title: Direct measurement of the transbilayer movement of phospholipids by sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy.
abstract: The direct measurement of the transbilayer movement of 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC) in a planar supported lipid bilayer (PSLB) at the fused silica/D2O interface was obtained with sum-frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. The intrinsic sensitivity of SFG to the symmetry of an interface was used to measure the asymmetric distribution of DSPC and perdeuterated DSPC (DSPC-d83) lipids in asymmetrically prepared DSPC/DSPC-d83 PSLBs. Changes in the membrane lipid composition due to exchange between leaflets was monitored by measuring the decay in the CH3 symmetric stretch intensity at 2875 cm-1 with time. The activation energy for transverse motion was determined directly from spectral relaxation measurements at several temperatures and was determined to be 206 +/- 18 kJ/mol. At room temperature (25 degrees C) the half-time of lipid flip-flop was calculated to be approximately 25 days. At 51 degrees C, only 7 degrees C below the main phase-transition temperature of DSPC, the half-time decreases to 25 min. These results have important implications for understanding the transbilayer movement of lipids in biological membranes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, 315 South 1400 East, RM 2020, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Conboy
mesh_terms: D007700:Kinetics; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D010743:Phospholipids; C010942:1,2-distearoyllecithin