Palmitoyl carnitine can exist in lamellar and hexagonal phases

✍ Scribed by Robert H. Stinson

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 760 KB
• Volume: 52
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-3084
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-3084(90)90004-b

✦ Synopsis

Carnitine is a necessary cofactor for the transport of fatty acids across the inner mitochondrial membrane. The behaviour in a buffer solution of the acyl carnitine, palmitoyl carnitine, has been investigated. Palmitoyl carnitine is amphiphilic and resembles, in some structural respects, a lysolecithin. X-ray diffraction studies showed that palmitoyl carnitine in buffer at a low temperature formed a gel-phase bilayer with fully interdigitated hydrocarbon chains perpendicular to the bilayer surface. The bilayer thickness increased slightly as water content increased due to a reorientation of the carnitine portion. As temperature was increased a transition occurred to a hexagonal (H~) phase with buffer solution separating cylinders of palmitoyl carnitine. The transition occurred over a broad temperature range of approximately 20°C.