Emphatic visualization of sphingomyelin-rich domains by inter-lipid FRET imaging using fluorescent sphingomyelins.

ABSTRACT: Imaging the distribution of sphingomyelin (SM) in membranes is an important issue in lipid-raft research. Recently we developed novel fluorescent SM analogs that exhibit partition and dynamic behaviors similar to native SM, and succeeded in visualizing lateral domain-segregation between SM-rich liquid-ordered (Lo) and SM-poor liquid-disordered (Ld) domains. However, because the fluorescent contrast between these two domains depends directly on their partition ratio for the fluorescent SMs, domain-separation becomes indeterminate when the distribution difference is not great enough. In this study, we propose the use of inter-lipid Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging between fluorescent SMs to enhance the contrast of the two domains in cases in which the inter-domain difference

SUBMITTER: Kinoshita M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5711942 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature