Prodan fluorescence detects the bilayer packing of asymmetric phospholipids.

The bilayer phase behavior of asymmetric phospholipids, palmitoylstearoylphosphatidylcholine (PSPC) and stearoylpalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (SPPC), with different vesicle sizes (large multilamellar vesicle (LMV) and giant multilamellar vesicle (GMV)) was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy using a polarity-sensitive fluorescent probe Prodan under high pressure. The results were compared with those of a symmetric phospholipid, diheptadecanoyl PC (C17PC). The difference in phase transitions of the PSPC and SPPC bilayers and in thermodynamic quantities of the transitions was hardly observed between LMV and GMV as the case of the C17PC bilayer. On the other hand, the Prodan fluorescence showed clear differences between LMV and GMV of the asymmetric PC bilayers. From the second derivative of Prodan fluorescence spectra, the three dimensional image plots in which we can clearly see the location of Prodan in the bilayer membrane as blue valleys were constructed for LMV and GMV under high pressure. We revealed from the plots that the bilayer packing is significantly dependent on not only the vesicle size but also the acyl-chain asymmetry of PC molecule in addition to the phase states. It was found that the packing of the gel phases of the asymmetric PC bilayers is weaker than that of the symmetric PC bilayer, and the size of vesicle affects the packing of the interdigitated gel phase the most markedly among three gel phases. This study suggests that the Prodan molecules can detect the effect of vesicle size on the phase states for the asymmetric PC bilayers, and they become a useful indicator for various membrane properties, especially bilayer interdigitation.