Lateral Diffusion and NMR

Lateral diffusion is a fundamental physical property of membrane lipids and proteins. NMR-based lateral diffusion measurements, while avoiding the need for large, rigid fluorophores inherent to fluorescence-based lateral diffusion measurements, must overcome the spectral broadening arising from the slow anisotropic motions in membranes. Two broad categories of techniques have evolved for doing so, one involving pulsed field gradient methods and the second employing exchange spectroscopy methods. How these have been adapted to permit NMR measurements of lateral diffusion in membranes will be described here in the overview, along with the various advantages and limitations of each.