Surface-Assisted Formation of Model Protocells from Fatty Acid and Phospholipid Mixtures

Release of phospholipid fatty acid from human erythrocytes.

To study the catabolism of erythrocyte phospholipids, human erythrocytes were labeled with radioactive fatty acid (FA). Labeling was performed by the two separate routes which together are thought to be responsible for the majority of phosphatide renewal in the red cell: (a) passive equilibration of erythrocytes with preformed acid-labeled red cell phosphatidylcholine (PC) and (b) active, "acyl...

Nanoparticle-assisted surface immobilization of phospholipid liposomes.

Phospholipid liposomes (100-200 nm diameter) are deposited onto solid substrates after stabilizing them against fusion with the solid by allowing charged nanoparticles to adsorb at approximately 25% surface coverage. The immobilized vesicles remain stable over a period of days. Epifluorescence imaging shows that they diffuse freely over surfaces with the same charge but adsorb tightly onto surf...

Fatty acid and phospholipid metabolism in prokaryotes

Liver and intestinal fatty acid-binding proteins obtain fatty acids from phospholipid membranes by different mechanisms.

Intestinal enterocytes contain high concentrations of two cytosolic fatty acid-binding proteins (FABP), liver FABP (L-FABP) and intestinal FABP (I-FABP), which are hypothesized to play a role in cellular fatty acid trafficking. The mechanism(s) by which fatty acids move from membranes to each of these proteins is not known. Here we demonstrate that fluorescent anthroyloxy fatty acid analogues (...

Free fatty acid transfer from rat liver fatty acid-binding protein to phospholipid vesicles. Effect of ligand and solution properties.

Fatty acid binding proteins (FABP) are a family of 14-15-kDa proteins found in many mammalian cell types in high abundance. Although their precise physiological role remains hypothetical, the transfer of free fatty acids (ffa) to intracellular membrane sites is believed to be an important function of FABP. To better understand the role of FABP in this process, we have examined how the rate of f...