Under the Influence of Alcohol: The Effect of Ethanol and Methanol on Lipid Bilayers

@article{citeulike:2269549, abstract = {Extensive microscopic molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to study the effects of short-chain alcohols, methanol and ethanol, on two different fully hydrated lipid bilayer systems (POPC and DPPC) in the fluid phase at 323 K. It is found that ethanol has a stronger effect on the structural properties of the membranes. In particular, the bilayers become more fluid and permeable: ethanol molecules are able to penetrate through the membrane in typical timescales of [~]200 ns, whereas for methanol that timescale is considerably longer, at least of the order of microseconds. A closer examination exposes a number of effects due to ethanol. Hydrogen-bonding analysis reveals that a large fraction of ethanols is involved in hydrogen bonds with lipids. This in turn is intimately coupled to the ordering of hydrocarbon chains: we find that binding to an ethanol decreases the order of the chains. We have also determined the dependence of lipid-chain ordering on ethanol concentration and found that to be nonmonotonous. Overall, we find good agreement with NMR and micropipette studies. 10.1529/biophysj.105.062364}, author = {Patra, Michael and Salonen, Emppu and Terama, Emma and Vattulainen, Ilpo and Faller, Roland and Lee, Bryan W. and Holopainen, Juha and Karttunen, Mikko }, citeulike-article-id = {2269549}, doi = {10.1529/biophysj.105.062364}, journal = {Biophys. J.}, keywords = {alcohol, ethanol, membranes, methanol}, month = {February}, number = {4}, pages = {1121--1135}, posted-at = {2008-01-21 18:01:29}, priority = {2}, title = {Under the Influence of Alcohol: The Effect of Ethanol and Methanol on Lipid Bilayers}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1529/biophysj.105.062364}, volume = {90}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2269549 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2269549 TI - Under the Influence of Alcohol: The Effect of Ethanol and Methanol on Lipid Bilayers JF - Biophys. J. VL - 90 IS - 4 SP - 1121 EP - 1135 N2 - Extensive microscopic molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to study the effects of short-chain alcohols, methanol and ethanol, on two different fully hydrated lipid bilayer systems (POPC and DPPC) in the fluid phase at 323 K. It is found that ethanol has a stronger effect on the structural properties of the membranes. In particular, the bilayers become more fluid and permeable: ethanol molecules are able to penetrate through the membrane in typical timescales of [~]200 ns, whereas for methanol that timescale is considerably longer, at least of the order of microseconds. A closer examination exposes a number of effects due to ethanol. Hydrogen-bonding analysis reveals that a large fraction of ethanols is involved in hydrogen bonds with lipids. This in turn is intimately coupled to the ordering of hydrocarbon chains: we find that binding to an ethanol decreases the order of the chains. We have also determined the dependence of lipid-chain ordering on ethanol concentration and found that to be nonmonotonous. Overall, we find good agreement with NMR and micropipette studies. 10.1529/biophysj.105.062364 KW - alcohol KW - ethanol KW - membranes KW - methanol AU - Patra, Michael AU - Salonen, Emppu AU - Terama, Emma AU - Vattulainen, Ilpo AU - Faller, Roland AU - Lee, Bryan AU - Holopainen, Juha AU - Karttunen, Mikko PY - 2006/02/15/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1529/biophysj.105.062364 ER -