Glucose Can Protect Membranes against Dehydration Damage by Inducing a Glassy Membrane State at Low Hydrations.

ABSTRACT: The physical effects of small sugars on membranes have been studied for decades, primarily because of their membrane stabilization in cold or dehydrated environments. We studied the effects of up to 20 mol% glucose in bilayers made of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) at low hydration by combining X-ray diffraction and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. In agreement with previous studies, we observe membrane thinning at low and membrane thickening at high sugar concentrations. Glucose was found to preferentially localize to the outer head region of phospholipid bilayers at all concentrations, and partitioning of sugar in the membranes was found to monotonically increase with increasing sugar concentration. While the number of gauche defects in the lipid acyl tails

SUBMITTER: Dhaliwal A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6359629 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature