19F-NMR study on micellar solubilization of a volatile anesthetic halothane: Dose-related biphasic interaction

The Interaction between Anesthetic Isoflurane and Model-Biomembrane Monolayer Using Simultaneous Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) and Quartz Crystal Impedance (QCI) Methods

The interaction between anesthetic Isoflurane (Iso) and model-biomembrane on the water surface has been investigated using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and quartz crystal impedance (QCI) methods. The model-biomembranes used were dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline (DPPC), DPPC-palmitic acid (PA) mixture (DPPC:PA = 8:2), DPPC-Alamethicin (Al) mixture (DPPC:Al = 39:1), and DPPC-β-Lactoglobulin (βLG) mixture (DPPC:βLG = 139:1) monolayers, respectively. The quartz crystal oscillator (QCO) was attached horizontally to each monolayer, and QCM and QCI measurements were performed simultaneously. It was found that Iso hydrate physisorbed on each monolayer/water interface from QCM and changed those interfacial viscosities from QCI. With an increase in Iso concentration, pure DPPC, DPPC-PA mixed, and DPPC-Al mixed monolayers showed a two-step process of Iso hydrate on both physisorption and viscosity, whereas it was a one-step for the DPPC-βLG mixed monolayer. The viscosity change in the DPPC-βLG mixed monolayer with the physisorption of Iso hydrate was much larger than that of other monolayers, in spite of the one-step process. From these results, the action mechanism of anesthetics and their relevance to the expression of anesthesia were discussed, based on the "release of interfacial hydrated water" hypothesis on the membrane/water interface.

Revisiting lipid – general anesthetic interactions (II): Halothane location and changes in lipid bilayer microenvironment monitored by fluorescence

A universal mechanism for the action of general anesthetics (GA) is not yet available. In this study, we investigated the interaction between halothane and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-3-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-3-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) bilayers labeled with Laurdan, Prodan, and NBD-C6-PC as the reporter probes using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. We have evidence that halothane is located on the acyl chain side, near the headgroup region of the bilayer. Additionally, we find that halothane may be inhomogeneously distributed within DOPC and DPPC bilayers. We also show data that indicate halothane increases the free volume available to fluorescent probes. Differential scanning calorimetry and UV scanning calorimetry experiments were implemented to further observe the effects of halothane addition to the DPPC lipid bilayer. A significant shift of the phase-transition temperature of the DPPC system was observed. Our findings suggest that general anesthetic – lipid bilayer interactions may play a significant role in the overall mechanism of anesthetic action, and these effects should not be ignored when interactions between membrane proteins and anesthetics are considered.Key words: liposomes, anesthesia, fluorescence, phase transition, phospholipid bilayers.

The quantitative analysis of three action modes of volatile anesthetics on purple membrane

We quantitatively assessed the spectroscopic changes of purple membrane in relation to the concentrations of a volatile anesthetic. As reported previously, volatile anesthetics show three modes of action on purple membrane. By using an anesthetic for which the concentration in solution could be determined spectroscopically and by applying modified analytical methods regarding the M-intermediate lifetime, we were able to clarify the quantitative relation between anesthetic concentration and each mode of action, a relation which in the past has only been described qualitatively. We also determined through the measurement of transient pH changes with pyranine that the proton pump efficiency per photochemical cycle in an action mode induced with low concentrations of anesthetic does not change from that of the native state. Moreover, we dynamically obtained the individual M-bacteriorhodopsin difference spectrum of each state at room temperature using our flash photolysis system equipped with a wavelength-tunable dye laser. These results demonstrated again that we should clearly distinguish different action modes of anesthetics according to their concentrations.

Lateral conductance parallel to membrane surfaces: effects of anesthetics and electrolytes at pre-transition

The effects of dilute salts and anesthetics were studied on the impedance dispersion in the dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposomes. Below the pre-transition temperature, the apparent activation energy for conductance in DPPC-H2O without salts was equivalent to pure water, 18.2 kJ mol-1. This suggests that the mobile ions (H3O+ and OH-) interact negligibly with the lipid surface below the pre-transition temperature. At pre-transition temperature, the apparent activation energy of the conductance decreased by the increase in the DPPC concentrations. The effects of various salts (LiCl, NaCl, KCl, KBr, and KI) on the apparent activation energy of the conductance were studied. Changes in anions, but not in cations, affected the activation energy. The order of the effect was Cl- less than Br- less than I-. Cations appear to be highly immobilized by hydrogen bonding to the phosphate moiety of DPPC. The smaller the ionic radius, the more ions are fixed on the surface at the expense of the free-moving species. The apparent activation energy of the transfer of ions at the vesicle surface was estimated from the temperature-dependence of the dielectric constant, and was 61.0 kJ mol-1 in the absence of electrolytes. In the presence of electrolytes, the order of the activation energy was F- greater than Cl- greater than Br- greater than I-. When the ionic radius is smaller, these anions interact with the hydration layer at the vesicle surface and the ionic transfer may become sluggish. In the absence of electrolytes, the apparent activation energy of the dielectric constant decreased by the increase in halothane concentrations. In the presence of electrolytes, however, the addition of halothane increased the apparent activation energy. We propose that the adsorption of halothane on the vesicle surface produces two effects: (1) destruction of the hydration shell, and (2) increase in the binding of electrolytes to the vesicle surface. In the absence of electrolytes, the first effect predominates and the apparent activation energy is decreased. In the presence of electrolytes, the latter effect predominates and the apparent activation energy is increased.

Proton flow along lipid bilayer surfaces: effect of halothane on the lateral surface conductance and membrane hydration

Impedance dispersion in liposomes measures the lateral charge transfer of lipid membrane surfaces. Depending on the choice of frequency between 1 kHz and 100 GHz, relaxation of the counterions at the interface, orientation of the head group, and relaxation of the bound and free water are revealed. This study measured the impedance dispersion in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposomes at 10 kHz. The surface conductance and capacitance showed breaks at pre- and main transition temperatures. Below the pre-transition temperature, the activation energy of the ion movement was 18.1 kJ.mol-1, which corresponded to that of the spin-lattice relaxation time of water (18.0 kJ.mol-1). At temperatures between pre- and main transition it increased to 51.3 kJ.mol-1, and agreed with 46.2-58.0 kJ.mol-1 of the activation energy of the dielectric relaxation of ice. Because the present system was salt-free, the ions were H3O+ and OH-, hence, their behavior represents that of water. The above results show that below the pre-transition temperature, the conductance is regulated by the mobility of free ions, or the number of free water molecules near the interface. On the other hand when the temperature exceeded pre-transition, melting of the surface-bound water crystals became the rate-limiting step for the proton flow. Halothane did not show any effect on the ion movement when the temperature was below pre-transition. When the temperature exceeded pre-transition, 0.35 mM halothane (equilibrium concentration) decreased the activation energy of the ion movement to 29.3 kJ.mol-1. This decrease indicates that halothane enhanced the release of the surface-bound water molecules at pre-transition. The surface-disordering effect of halothane was also shown by depression of the pre-transition temperature and decrease of the association energy among head groups from 9.7 kJ.mol-1 of the control to 5.2 kJ.mol-1 at 0.35 mM.

Infrared spectra of phospholipid membranes: interfacial dehydration by volatile anesthetics and phase transition

Fourier-transform infrared attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy was used to study the effect of volatile anesthetics on fully hydrated dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) vesicle membranes. The main phase transition was monitored by the change in the C-H2 asymmetric stretching frequencies of the lipid tails. The surface property was analyzed by the changes in the P = O stretching, (CH3)3-N+ stretching of the hydrophilic head, and C = O stretching of the glycerol skeleton. The partial pressures of those agents that decreased the transition temperature 1.0 C degree were halothane 0.75, enflurane 1.90 and CCl4 0.85 kPa. At a 2:1 lipid/anesthetic mole ratio, the polar anesthetics, halothane and enflurane, increased the ratio of (P = O stretching band area)/((CH3)3-N+ stretching band area) by 26.3% and 21.1%, respectively, whereas apolar CCl4 increased it 10.5%. The water molecules bound to the P = O moiety are apparently replaced by the anesthetic molecules. The deconvoluted C = O spectra showed two peaks: free sn-1 that is closer to the lipid core and hydrogen-bonded sn-2 that is closer to the polar head. Addition of halothane and enflurane, but not CCl4, increased the number of peaks to three. The third peak is free sn-2, formed by disrupting hydrogen-bonding to water. Because the temperature-induced spectral change was limited to C-H2 stretching at the main phase transition, the effects of anesthetics on the lipid membrane structure are not identical to temperature elevation. Among anesthetics, the effects of apolar and polar molecules on the interfacial properties are different.

Molecular orientation of volatile anesthetics at the binding surface: 1H- and 19F-NMR studies of submolecular affinity

The shift of 1H- and 19F-NMR peaks in the frequency domain was used to resolve the solubilization of volatile anesthetics into sodium dodecylsulfate micelles to submolecular level. Enflurane has protons at both ends of the molecule, and the solubilization parameters (partition coefficients in a broad sense) of each end were estimated by 1H-NMR. The values were: 2130 for the hydrophobic end and 1980 for the hydrophilic end. The hydrophobic end of halothane is CF3, hence 19F-NMR was used: 4330 for the hydrophobic end and 2670 for the hydrophilic end. The ratios of the solubilization parameters between hydrophobic and hydrophilic ends were methoxyflurane 1.9 (Kaneshina et al. (1981) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 647, 223-226), enflurane 1.1, and halothane 1.6. The results indicate that methoxyflurane and halothane adsorb perpendicular to the membrane surface, whereas enflurane molecules stay parallel to the interface. The averaged solubilization parameters of both ends of these anesthetics were in good agreement with their conventional partition coefficients between dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) membranes and water. The solubilization parameter of chloroform (1H-NMR) was 1580 in agreement with the reported values of DPPC-water partition coefficient.

Changes in surface capacitance and conductance parallel to phospholipid membranes associated with phase transition: effects of halothane

The effects of phase transition on the surface capacitance and conductance parallel to dipalmitoyl- (DPPC) and dimyristoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) membranes were studied by impedance dispersion. The phospholipid aggregates were embedded into pores of a polycarbonate filter and the impedance dispersions were measured at a frequency range from 30 Hz to 1.0 MHz. When the frequency was below 120 kHz, the capacitance showed a peak at the pretransition temperature and a steep rise at the main-transition temperature. In this system, the observed capacitance consists of frequency-dependent and -independent parts. The frequency-dependent part is a surface phenomenon and arises from the lateral motion of counterions at the membrane/water interface. The frequency-independent part represents mainly the properties of the bulk lipid phase. Addition of halothane decreased the total capacitance of the DPPC aggregates at the low frequency range to 1/2 to 1/8 of the control depending upon the temperature. The surface component was solely responsible for this capacitance decrease, because the non-surface component was slightly increased instead. The data suggest that halothane inhibited the lateral ionic flow parallel to the interface.