Facultatea de Fizică
Universitatea "Al.I.Cuza" Iaşi
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| Titlu: Elecrtophysiological investigation of phloretin interaction with artificial membranes |
| Autori: Loredana Mereuţă |
| Afiliere: ‘Alexandru I. Cuza’ University, Faculty of Physics, Dept. of Biophysics and Medical Physics, Blvd.
Carol I, no 11, Iasi, Romania, R-6600 |
| Abstract: The structure and orientation of molecules within biomembranes under the influence of electric fields are still unraveled issues in the field of molecular biophysics. In this work it has been investigated the adsorption behavior of phloretin onto lipid bilayers and its effects on the membrane dipole potential. Among others, the ion conductance of a lipid membrane is influenced by its charge distribution. The membrane interior of a membrane is positive by several hundred millivolts compared to its surface, mainly due to the uniformly aligned lipid dipoles and adsorbed water molecules. Phloretin reduces the magnitude of the membrane dipole potential and thereby increases the membrane conductance for hydrophobic cations, while decreasing the conductance for anions. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that phloretin, which possesses a large dipole moment, adsorbs to biomembranes in a way that its dipoles create a dipole potential opposite to that of the lipid molecules themselves. |
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