A method for the modulation of membrane fluidity: homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of phospholipids and phospholipids and phospholipid-water model biomembranes.

The fatty acids associated with phospholipids of cell membranes, and particularly their degree of unsaturation, contribute to the fluidity of their structure and hance determine many of their biological properties. We describe a technique for modulating membrane fluidity which consists of hydrogenating the unsaturated double bonds of membrane phospholipids. This has been accomplished using a homogeneous catalyst. The process has been applied to phospholipids in organic solvents, to phospholipids dispersed as multibilayers in aqueous systems, and also to sonicated preparations of phospholipids arranged as single bilayer vesicles. Preliminary experiments have also been performed with biological membranes. These results indicate that the process of homogeneous catalysis for the modulation of lipid fluidity of biological cell membranes may have considerable future biological and biochemical application.