Under the influence of alcohol: The effect of ethanol and methanol on lipid bilayers

被引:326
作者
Patra, M
Salonen, E
Terama, E
Vattulainen, I
Faller, R
Lee, BW
Holopainen, J
Karttunen, M [1 ]
机构
[1] Aalto Univ, Lab Computat Engn, Biophys & Stat Mech Grp, Helsinki, Finland
[2] Lund Univ, Ctr Chem & Chem Engn, Lund, Sweden
[3] Aalto Univ, Phys Lab, Helsinki, Finland
[4] Aalto Univ, Helsinki Univ Technol, Helsinki Inst Phys, Helsinki, Finland
[5] Univ Calif Davis, Dept Chem Engn & Mat Sci, Davis, CA 95616 USA
[6] Univ Helsinki, Inst Biomed, Dept Ophthalmol, Helsinki, Finland
[7] Univ Helsinki, Inst Biomed, Helsinki Biophys & Biomembrane Grp, Helsinki, Finland
[8] Univ Western Ontario, Dept Appl Math, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada
基金
芬兰科学院;
关键词
D O I
10.1529/biophysj.105.062364
中图分类号
Q6 [生物物理学];
学科分类号
071011 ;
摘要
Extensive microscopic molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to study the effects of short-chain alcohols, methanol and ethanol, on two different fully hydrated lipid bilayer systems (POPC and DPPC) in the fluid phase at 323 K. It is found that ethanol has a stronger effect on the structural properties of the membranes. In particular, the bilayers become more fluid and permeable: ethanol molecules are able to penetrate through the membrane in typical timescales of similar to 200 ns, whereas for methanol that timescale is considerably longer, at least of the order of microseconds. A closer examination exposes a number of effects due to ethanol. Hydrogen-bonding analysis reveals that a large fraction of ethanols is involved in hydrogen bonds with lipids. This in turn is intimately coupled to the ordering of hydrocarbon chains: we find that binding to an ethanol decreases the order of the chains. We have also determined the dependence of lipid-chain ordering on ethanol concentration and found that to be nonmonotonous. Overall, we find good agreement with NMR and micropipette studies.
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页码:1121 / 1135
页数:15
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