On the Activity of Alkaline Phosphatase in Intestinal Mucosa from Casein-fed Rats

A novel optical activity of lutein was studied in dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) solution by the measurement of circular dichroism and absorbance. The surfactant was found to bring about the circular dichroism activity of the lutein below the critical micelle concentration (CMC) in a different way from that by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). This phenomenon was interpreted by the card-pack model of the lutein aggregate in which lutein molecule was slightly shifted each other. The above optical activity abruptly became strong just before the CMC of DTAB. This seems to correspond to the transition from the polymeric aggregate of the lutein to the oligomeric one. Such an optical activity disappeared beyond the CMC on the incorporation of the lutein molecules into the surfactant micelles. The molar binding ratios of DTAB to the lutein were determined to be 130 to 210 on the basis of the lutein concentration dependence of the DTAB concentration showing the arbitrary ellipticity. These ratios were clearly larger than those for SDS. On the other hand, filtration measurement showed that the size of the lutein-DTAB complex was larger than 2 μm in diameter. These phenomena were discussed assuming the possible model of the aggregate as a comparative study of the anionic and cationic surfactants causing the novel optical activity of this aggregate.