Studies of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) monolayers embedded with endohedral metallofullerene (Dy@C82).
Toxicological effects of carbon nanomaterials have attracted increasing attention. In this work, we studied the interaction between Dy@C(82) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) in a monolayer at the N(2)/Tris buffer interface by thermodynamic analysis of surface pressure-area (pi-A) and surface potential-area (DeltaV-A) isotherms. Dy@C(82) was found to impact considerably more on the physical properties of the monolayers than C(60) because of its elliptical structure and distinctive dipole. The addition of Dy@C(82) essentially closed down the liquid expanded-liquid condensed (LE-LC) phase coexistence region of the mixed monolayers. Furthermore, Dy@C(82) reduced elasticity of the monolayers, as indicated by the decreasing elastic modulus (C(s)(-1)) with increasing molar ratio of Dy@C(82) (X(Dy@C82)). Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed that the dispersion of Dy@C(82) depend on the state of the mixed films. Dy@C(82) formed flocs from aggregation of Dy@C(82) towers in the LE and LE-LC coexistence regions, accompanied by gradual falling down of Dy@C(82) from the towers and permeation of the falling metallofullerenes into the LE phase during their compression-induced reorientation process. In the LC and solid phases, the Dy@C(82) flocs were dispersed into isolated towers, accompanied by the partial squeezing out of the embedded metallofullerenes to above the DPPC monolayer. The continuous falling down of Dy@C(82) from the towers resulted in their height decrease but diameter enlargement. When the surface pressure was increased to the kink value (53 mN/m), Dy@C(82) was almost completely extruded from the DPPC monolayers. These findings are believed to be important for understanding the impact of fullerenes, metallofullerenes, and nanomaterials in general on biological membranes.
Wang
Zhining
Z
Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Li
Xiaofang
X
Yang
Shihe
S