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E S Rowe

Publications and source records attributed to E S Rowe.

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Effect of alcohols on the phase transitions of dihexadecylphosphatidylcholine.

We have systematically investigated the effect of short chain alcohols (methanol to n-propanol) on the phase transitions of 1,2-dihexadecylphosphatidylcholine (DHPC), a lipid that forms a stable interdigitated gel phase (L beta I) in aqueous solution. The temperature of the low-temperature L beta I to P beta' phase transition of DHPC was found to increase with alcohol concentration, showing that alcohol interacts preferentially with the interdigitated phase relative to the non-interdigitated gel. The main transition of DHPC exhibited a biphasic effect of alcohol concentration similar to that previously observed with DPPC (Rowe, E.S. (1983) Biochemistry 22,3299-3305). As alcohol concentration is increased the lower L beta I to P beta' and main P beta' to L alpha transitions of DHPC merge at the threshold concentration of the biphasic effect, so that above this concentration there is one phase transition from L beta I directly to L alpha. This is analogous to DPPC above its biphasic threshold. Similar to DPPC, the transition between L beta I and L alpha exhibits marked hysteresis.

Alcohols↗

Alcohol interactions with lipids: a carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance study using butanol labeled at C-1.

The interactions of carbon-13 enriched butanol with dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) were studied using C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance. It was found that above the gel to liquid crystal phase transition the resonance from the butanol could be resolved into two signals with similar chemical shifts but different T1 values and line widths. In contrast, only one narrow resonance was observed for ethanol, which has considerably less solubility in the lipids than butanol. Thermodynamic analyses of the effects of butanol on the phase transition temperature predict much greater solubility or butanol when the lipid is above the phase transition temperature than when it is below. It was concluded that the two butanol resonances represent two slowly exchanging populations, the free butanol in the aqueous phase and butanol dissolved in the liquid crystalline region of the lipid. No bound butanol was detected below the gel to liquid crystal phase transition. Relaxation studies were performed on the resonance of the bound butanol in DPPC and DMPC, including measurements of T1, line width, and nuclear Overhauser enhancement. Theoretical analysis of the relaxation parameters indicates that the lipid-bound alcohol has very high mobility within the fluid lipid bilayer. The data are consistent with butanol being present at the aqueous boundary or head group region of the lipid.

1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine↗

Effect of n-alcohols and glycerol on the pretransition of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine.

We have systematically investigated the effect of short-chain n-alcohols and glycerol on the pretransition of 1,2-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) by spectrophotometry. It is found that the n-alcohols and glycerol remove the pretransition above a critical concentration for each ligand. In addition, the short-chain n-alcohols below the critical concentration decrease the pretransition temperature. The longer the aliphatic chain length of the n-alcohol (up to butanol) the greater the decrease in the pretransition temperature, and the lower the concentration necessary to remove the pretransition. However, glycerol differs from the short-chain n-alcohols in that it has no significant effect on either the pretransition or the main transition, but it is also capable of removing the pretransition above a critical concentration. It has previously been shown that alcohols have a biphasic effect on the main transition temperature of phosphatidylcholines (Rowe, E.S. (1983) Biochemistry 22, 3299-3305). At high alcohol concentrations, the main transition is not thermodynamically reversible (Rowe, E.S. (1985) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 813, 321-330). Recently, Simon and McIntosh (Biochim. Biophys. Acta (1984) 773, 169-172) have identified that at high ethanol concentration DPPC exists in the interdigitated phase. The critical ligand concentration at which the pretransition disappears coincides with the induction of main transition hysteresis and the biphasic alcohol effect in the main transition. These three effects appear to correlate with the induction of the interdigitated gel state by alcohols and glycerol.

1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine↗

Induction of lateral phase separations in binary lipid mixtures by alcohol.

It has previously been shown that alcohol has different effects on the gel to liquid-crystal phase transition of phosphatidylcholines (PC's) and phosphatidylethanolamines (PE's) [Rowe, E. S. (1985) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 813, 321-330]. In this investigation, the thermotropic properties of binary PE-PC mixtures were studied in the presence of ethanol in order to determine whether the differential interactions of alcohol with PC and PE would lead to lateral phase separations. Phase diagrams of the dilaurylphosphatidylethanolamine-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine [PE(12:0)-PC(16:0)] system were constructed in the presence and absence of ethanol. It was shown that lateral phase separations occur in the gel phase over a certain composition range in the presence of 100 mg/mL ethanol. In the absence of alcohol these two lipids are miscible in both the gel and liquid-crystal states. The data suggest that in the presence of ethanol these lateral phase separations involve the coexistence of regular bilayer gel and the fully interdigitated gel phase, which has previously been shown to occur in pure PC(16:0) under these conditions [Simon, S. A., & McIntosh, T. J. (1984) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 773, 169-172]. The biological implications of these findings are discussed.

Ethanol↗

13C-NMR and spectrophotometric studies of alcohol-lipid interactions.

The interactions of butanol and mixtures of butanol and ethanol with dipalmitoylphosphatidyl choline (DPPC) liposomes have been investigated by both spectrophotometric measurements and Fourier transform 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The spectrophotometric experiments indicate that butanol exhibits the same effects on the thermotropic properties of DPPC as the other short chain alcohols, methanol, ethanol and propanol, which have been shown to be characteristic of the alcohol induced transition of the lipid to the interdigitated state. An additive effect of butanol and ethanol on the induction of the interdigitated phase in DPPC was also observed. A decrease in line width and increase in T1 of the choline methyl signal were observed in the 13C-NMR experiments conducted at 32 degrees C when butanol was added to DPPC in increasing amounts suggesting an increase of disorder in the head group region of the lipid. Addition of ethanol to the NMR sample containing butanol produced hysteresis in the heating and cooling curves characteristic of the interdigitated state. In the interdigitated state, the choline methyl signal exhibited a T1 value equal to that when the lipid is in the fluid state. The increase of mobility in the head group region in the interdigitated gel state relative to the bilayer gel can be rationalized by the increase in surface area in that site when the lipid interdigitates.

1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine↗

Thermodynamic reversibility of phase transitions. Specific effects of alcohols on phosphatidylcholines.

The gel-to-fluid phase transitions of several phosphatidylethanolamines (PE's) and phosphatidylcholines (PC's) have been investigated in the presence of three short-chain alcohols. The effects of the alcohols on the thermodynamic reversibility of these transitions was studied and it was found that the transitions for PC's are not thermodynamically reversible at relatively high alcohol concentrations. The PE transitions are thermodynamically reversible for all alcohol concentrations, and the PE's do not exhibit the biphasic effects of alcohol on the transition temperature previously reported for the PC's (Rowe, E.S. (1983) Biochemistry 22, 3299-3305). The biphasic transition temperature effects and the thermodynamic irreversibility of PC transitions at high alcohol concentrations appear to be correlated with the induction of a fully interdigitated gel phase recently reported in the literature (Simon, S.A. and McIntosh, T.J. (1984) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 773, 169-172). The biological significance of these findings is discussed.

1-Propanol↗

The effects of ethanol on the thermotropic properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine.

The specific effect of ethanol on several aspects of the gel-to-liquid crystal transition of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine was investigated using two spectrophotometric techniques, one probe method and one direct method. Ethanol shifts the phase-transition temperature to low temperature, demonstrating that ethanol interacts preferentially with the fluid phase. Thermodynamic analysis of the melting point depression leads to a calculated membrane:buffer partition coefficient of 6.25 (mole fraction units) or 0.15 mole of ethanol per kilogram of lipid:mole of ethanol per liter of solution. Careful evaluation of the transition cooperativity with temperature resolution of +/- 0.1 degrees shows that there is no reduction in transition cooperativity, and thus no reduction in size of the cooperative lipid clusters due to ethanol. The implications of these findings for the mechanism of action of ethanol in terms of current theories of anesthetic mechanisms are discussed.

Anesthesia↗

Membrane:buffer partition coefficient for ethanol in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine.

Phase transitions of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) are followed using optical density measurements, as a function of aqueous ethanol concentration. The shift of the phase transition to lower temperatures is interpreted in terms of the thermodynamics of freezing point depressions. This analysis provides a partition coefficient of ethanol into DMPC of 0.07 liter of solution/kg membrane or 2.64 moles of solvent/mole of DMPC.

Buffers↗

Multiparameter kinetic study on the unfolding and refolding of bovine carbonic anhydrase B.

The kinetics of unfolding and refolding of bovine carbonic anhydrase B by guanidinium chloride have been studied by simultaneously monitoring several spectroscopic parameters, each of which reflects certain unique conformational features of the protein molecule. In the present report, far-UV circular dichroism (CD) was used to follow the secondary structural change, UV difference absorption was used to follow the exposure or burying of aromatic amino acid residues, and near-UV CD was used to follow tertiary structural changes during unfolding and refolding. The unfolding is described by two unimolecular rate processes, and refolding is described by three unimolecular rate processes. The minimum number of conformational species involved in the mechanism is five. The refolding of the protein followed by the above three parameters indicates that the process consists of an initial rapid phase in which the random-coiled protein is converted to an intermediate state(s) having secondary structure comparable to that of the native protein. This is followed by the burying of the aromatic amino acid residues to form the interior of the protein molecule. Subsequently, the protein molecule acquires its tertiary structure and folds into a unique conformation with the formation of aromatic clusters.

Carbonic Anhydrases↗

Electrooptical properties of reduced protein-sodium dodecyl sulfate complexes.

Two independent electrooptical properties, the specific Kerr constants and the electric birefringence relaxation times, of the saturated sodium dodecyl sulfate complexes of a series of reduced polypeptides of known molecular weight are reported. Both the Kerr constants and the relaxation times are unique functions of the molecular weight of the polypeptide chain. The specific Kerr constants depend upon the square of the polypeptide molecular weight. The relaxation times of the complexes, which are proportional to the rotational diffusion constants, are dependent on the molecular weight to approximately the first power. The latter finding is inconsistent with the compact prolate ellipsoid model for sodium dodecyl sulfate-protein complexes proposed by Reynolds and Tanford ((1970) J. Biol. Chem. 245, 5161) in which the cross section is constant and the length depends on linearly on molecular weight; for this model the relaxation times would depend on approximately the 2.5 power of the molecular weight in the range of sizes investigated. Combination of the present results with other properties in the literature rules out a number of other models characterized by compactness and near inflexibility. No firm conclusions can be drawn as to the suitability of the free-draining flexible model of Shirahama, Tsujii, and Takagi ((1974) J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 75, 309).

Binding Sites↗

Dissociation and denaturation equilibria and kinetics of a homogeneous human immunoglobulin Fab fragment.

The conformational equilibria and the kinetics of the approach to equilibrium of an IgG1 myeloma (Wes) Fab fragment (SSFab) and its mildly reduced and S-carboxyamidomethylated derivative (RAFab) were studied as a function of guanidine hydrochloride concentration. The unimolecular denaturation of SSFab, the bimolecular denaturation of RAFab, and the denaturation of Wes L chain reported previously (Rowe, E. S., and Tanford, C., (1973), Biochemistry 12, 4822) are interpreted in terms of the domain structure and evaluated in terms of the thermodynamic stability of the protein and the covalent and noncovalent interactions among its subunits. The Fd-L interactions are found to be extremely strong and are maintained at concentrations of denaturant sufficient to denature the individual domains. It is shown that all of the data are consistent with a two region structure for Fab, one composed of the vL and vH domains, and the other composed of the cL and cH domains, so that there are two sites of noncovalent Fd-L interactions. One region, identified as the C region, is found to be 10(2)-10(4) times more stable than the other; this difference in stability is attributed largely to a stronger and more extensive interaction between the domains of this region. The kinetics of the approach to equilibrium are found to be extremely slow in the center of the transitions, requiring up to a week for equilibration for RAFab, and several months for SSFab. This unusual kinetic behavior is shown to be due to the strong Fd-L interaction under conditions where the monomeric domains are unstable.

Alkylation↗

Comparative effects of short chain alcohols on lipid phase transitions.

We have been systematically investigating the physical interactions of alcohols with synthetic lipids in order to elucidate the mechanisms of alcohol intoxication. It has previously been shown that the effects of ethanol on the phase transition temperatures of saturated chain phosphatidylcholines (PC's) are biphasic [11]. The secondary high concentration effect has recently been shown to be due to a transition to a new completely interdigitated state [16]. In the present report we have investigated the influence of the chain length of the alcohol on the induction of this interdigitated state. We demonstrate that all three alcohols have a biphasic effect on the transition temperature of PC, and the comparison of the concentration dependencies of this effect for the three alcohols provides some insight into the possible mechanism of the transition. The potential biological importance of this secondary alcohol-membrane interaction is discussed.

Alcohols↗