Librational motion of spin-labeled lipids in high-cholesterol containing membranes from echo-detected EPR spectra

Two-pulse, echo-detected (ED) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was used to study the librational motions of spin-labeled lipids in membranes of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine + 50 mol % cholesterol. The temperature dependence, over the range 77 - 240 K, and the dependence on position of spin-labeling in the sn-2 chain ( n = 5, 7, 10, 12, and 14) of the phospholipid, were characterized in detail. The experimental ED-spectra were corrected for instantaneous spin diffusion arising from static spin-spin interactions, by using spectra recorded at 77 K, where motional contributions are negligible. Simulations according to a model of rapid, small-amplitude librations about an axis whose direction is randomly distributed are able to describe the experimental spectra. Calibrations, in terms of the amplitude-correlation time product, [alpha(2)]tau(c), were constructed for diagnostic spectral line-height ratios at different echo delay times, and for relaxation spectra obtained from the ratio of ED-spectra recorded at two different echo delays. The librational amplitude, [alpha(2)], was determined for a spin label at the 14-C position of the lipid chain from the partially motionally averaged hyperfine splitting in the conventional EPR spectra. The librational correlation time, tau(c), which is deduced from combination of the conventional and ED-EPR results, lies in the subnanosecond regime and depends only weakly on temperature. The temperature dependence of the ED-EPR spectra arises mainly from an increase in librational amplitude with increasing temperature, and position down the lipid chain. A gradual transition takes place at higher temperatures, from a situation in which segmental torsional librations are cumulative, i.e., the contributions of the individual segments add up progressively upon going down the chain, to one of concerted motion only weakly dependent on chain position. Such librational motions are important for glass-like states and are generally relevant to high lipid packing densities, e.g., in cholesterol-containing raft domains and condensed complexes.