Abstract
α-Tocopherol significantly perturbs the phase transition of fully saturated phospholipids and its effect is considerably bigger than that of α-tocopheryl acetate as observed by differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. This observation remarks the importance of its phenolic hydroxy1 group in determining the interaction of α-tocopherol with phospholipids. However, this hydroxyl group is not hydrogen bonded to neither the carbonyl group nor the phosphate group of phosphatidylcholine, although it seems able of forming a hydrogen bonding with the carbonyl group of phosphatidylethanolamine. By studying the intrinsic fluorescence of α-tocopherol, it was found that its chromanol group is located near the water-lipid interface, although it is not accesible from the water phase. On the other hand, α-tocopherol was found to partition with preference for the most fluid domains in the membrane, as seen by differential scanning calorimetry.
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