Chlorophyll a and chlorophyllide a inside liposomes made of saturated and unsaturated lipids: A possible impact of the lipids microenvironment (original) (raw)

The aim of this work was to examine a possible impact of liposomes lipids microenvironment, dictated by a chemical composition of the fatty acid branches, on incorporation and spectral behaviour of chlorophyll a, and its derivative, chlorophyllide a inside small liposomes. The liposomes with the incorporated chlorophylls were made of dimirystoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC), and unsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC), containing significant fractions of unsaturated fatty acid moieties. In order to achieve the goal, both absorption and fluorescence polarization spectroscopy were applied, and the obtained data for the two incorporated pigments, which play a role of molecular sensors, were compared. In addition, quercetin, a well-known antioxidant, was used as the (chlorophylls) emission quencher, in order to estimate the type of environment sensed by the two pigments for the two liposomes that differ in chemical composition. The results, based primarily on fluorescence polarization data h...