Effect of low mole fraction of trehalose dicorynomycolate from Corynebacterium diphtheriae on water permeability and electrical capacitance of lipid bilayer membranes |
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| Authors: | H Imasato J Procópio M Tabak T Ioneda |
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| Affiliation: | Instituto de Física e Química de S?o Carlos da Universidade de S?o Paulo, Departamento de química e Física Molecular, Brazil. |
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| Abstract: | The effect of incorporation of different proportions of trehalose dicorynomycolates (TDC) into lecithin bilayer membranes was studied. It was found that TDC, induces a 14% decrease of water osmotic permeability (42.6 +/- 3.9 to 36.8 +/- 2.7 microns/s) at 1.6 mole%, suggesting that this substance leads to an increase of the degree of packing of the constituent lipid molecules. A condensing effect of TDC was also apparent from membrane electrical capacitance (Cm) measurement. By incorporating TDC into bilayer membranes, the value of Cm experienced a decrease of 29% at 1.6% mole fraction. This finding was taken to reflect an increase in membrane thickness, known in many examples, to be related to the condensing effect. |
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