Spectral imaging to measure heterogeneity in membrane lipid packing.

ABSTRACT: Physicochemical properties of the plasma membrane have been shown to play an important role in cellular functionality. Among those properties, the molecular order of the lipids, or the lipid packing, is of high importance. Changes in lipid packing are believed to compartmentalize cellular signaling by initiating coalescence and conformational changes of proteins. A common way to infer membrane lipid packing is by using membrane-embedded polarity-sensitive dyes, whose emission spectrum is dependent on the molecular order of the immediate membrane environment. Here, we report on an improved determination of such spectral shifts in the emission spectrum of the polarity-sensitive dyes. This improvement is based on the use of spectral imaging on a scanning confocal fluorescence microscope in co

SUBMITTER: Sezgin E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4539592 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature