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Selective quenching of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) by trinitrophenyl groups was utilized to examine the transbilayer fluidity asymmetry of model membranes of phospholipids (SPMVPL) extracted from synaptosomal plasma membrane vesicles (SPMV). The polarization (P), anisotropy (r), limiting anisotropy (rinfinity), and order parameter (S) of DPH in the inner monolayer were 0.019, 0.014, 0.018, and 0.047, respectively, greater than calculated for the outer monolayer of SPMVPL. Selective quenching of DPH by trinitrophenyl groups was also utilized to examine the effects of n-alkanols on the individual monolayer structure of SPMVPL. n-Alkanols fluidized the hydrocarbon region of bulk SPMVPL and the potencies of n-alkanols up to 1-nonanol increased with carbon chain length. It appears that the potencies in bilayer fluidization increase by 1 order of magnitudeas the carbon chain length increases by two carbon atoms. The cut-off phenomenon was reached at 1-decanol, where further increase in hydrocarbon length resulted in a decrease in pharmacological activity. The n-alkanols had greater fluidizing effects on the outer monolayer as compared to the inner monolayer of SPMVPL, even though these selective effects tended to become weaker as the carbon chain length increased. Thus, it has been proven that n-alkanols exhibit selective rather than nonselective fluidizing effects within transbilayer domains of SPMVPL.
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