Conductance properties of artificial lipidic membranes containing a proteolipid from Electrophorus. Response to cholinergic agents.

Previous studies have shown that a special proteolipid extract from the electric organ of Electrophorus showed high affinity binding for acetylcholine and other cholinergic agents. This proteolipid has now been incorporated into ultrathin lipidic membranes, and the membrane resistance was studied. The resistance decreased from 7.27 +/- 0.82 x 10(5) ohm cm(2) in the control membrane to 1.83 x 10(5) ohm cm(2) with addition of 72 microg/ml proteolipid. The decrease in resistance followed a potential function of order four with the proteolipid concentration in the membrane-forming solution. The presence of this proteolipid determined some type of cationic selectivity which was not observed in the control. At a critical point of proteolipid concentration the conductance spontaneously fluctuated between two levels. The membrane current jumped from one state to another by way of single discrete steps, reminiscent of those obtained with the excitatory inducing material or the macrocyclic antibiotics. In membranes containing another proteolipid having no cholinergic binding properties, the increase in conductance was smaller, and had a linear function with the concentration. In this case the "flip flop" fluctuation and the cationic selectivity were not observed. The membranes containing the cholinergic proteolipid reacted to the addition of acetylcholine by a rapid and transient increase in conductance that was considerably reduced or abolished by a previous application of d-tubocurarine. These membranes also interacted with other cholinergic agents, such as gallamine triethiodide, hexamethonium, and alpha-bungarotoxin. These results suggest that this special proteolipid, when added to the artificial membranes, induces a "chemical excitability" toward cholinergic ligands.