Biophysical Journal
Volume 103, Issue 2, 18 July 2012, Pages 228-237
Journal home page for Biophysical Journal

Article
Docosahexaenoic and Eicosapentaenoic Acids Segregate Differently between Raft and Nonraft Domains

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2012.06.016Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA), enriched in fish oils, are increasingly recognized to have potential benefits for treating many human afflictions. Despite the importance of PUFA, their molecular mechanism of action remains unclear. One emerging hypothesis is that phospholipids containing n-3 PUFA acyl chains modify the structure and composition of membrane rafts, thus affecting cell signaling. In this study the two major n-3 PUFA found in fish oils, eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids, are compared. Using solid-state 2H NMR spectroscopy we explored the molecular organization of 1-[2H31]palmitoyl-2-eicosapentaenoylphosphatidylcholine (PEPC-d31) and 1-[2H31]palmitoyl-2-docosahexaenoylphosphatidylcholine (PDPC-d31) in mixtures with sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol (chol). Our results indicate that whereas both PEPC-d31 and PDPC-d31 can accumulate into SM-rich/chol-rich raftlike domains, the tendency for DHA to incorporate into rafts is more than twice as great as for EPA. We propose that DHA may be the more bioactive component of fish oil that serves to disrupt lipid raft domain organization. This mechanism represents an evolution in the view of how PUFA remodel membrane architecture.

Cited by (0)