Physical and Photophysical Characterization of a BODIPY Phosphatidylcholine as a Membrane Probe

Lipids containing the dimethyl BODIPY fluorophore are used in cell biology because their fluorescence properties change with fluorophore concentration (C.-S. Chen, O. C. Martin, and R. E. Pagano. 1997. Biophys J. 72:37–50). The miscibility and steady-state fluorescence behavior of one such lipid, 1-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biophysical journal 2002-09, Vol.83 (3), p.1511-1524
Main Authors: Dahim, Mohammed, Mizuno, Nancy K., Li, Xin-Min, Momsen, William E., Momsen, Maureen M., Brockman, Howard L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biophysical Phenomena
Biophysics
Boron Compounds - chemistry
Cell Membrane - metabolism
Cellular biology
Fluorescence
Lipid Bilayers - chemistry
Lipids
Membranes
Models, Theoretical
Phosphatidylcholines - chemistry
Pressure
Spectrometry, Fluorescence
Temperature
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Summary:Lipids containing the dimethyl BODIPY fluorophore are used in cell biology because their fluorescence properties change with fluorophore concentration (C.-S. Chen, O. C. Martin, and R. E. Pagano. 1997. Biophys J. 72:37–50). The miscibility and steady-state fluorescence behavior of one such lipid, 1-palmitoyl-2-(4,4-difluoro-5,7-dimethyl-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza- s-indacene-3-pentanoyl)- sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (PBPC), have been characterized in mixtures with 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl- sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (SOPC). PBPC packs similarly to phosphatidylcholines having a cis-unsaturated acyl chain and mixes nearly ideally with SOPC, apparently without fluorophore–fluorophore aggregation. Increasing PBPC mole fraction from 0.0 to 1.0 in SOPC membranes changes the emission characteristics of the probe in a continuous manner. Analysis of these changes shows that emission from the excited dimethyl BODIPY monomer self quenches with a critical radius of 25.9 Å. Fluorophores sufficiently close (≤13.7 Å) at the time of excitation can form an excited dimer, emission from which depends strongly on total lipid packing density. Overall, the data show that PBPC is a reasonable physical substitute for other phosphatidylcholines in fluid membranes. Knowledge of PBPC fluorescence in lipid monolayers has been exploited to determine the two-dimensional concentration of SOPC in unilamellar, bilayer membranes.
ISSN:0006-3495
1542-0086
DOI:10.1016/S0006-3495(02)73921-0