Modelos de membrana celular: estudio termodinámico y microscopía de fuerza atómica

Dotor Delgado, Laura
Cea Mingueza, Pilar (dir.) ; Martín Solans, Santiago (dir.)

Universidad de Zaragoza, CIEN, 2021
Departamento de Química Física, Área de Química Física

Máster en Materiales Nanoestructurados para Aplicaciones Nanotecnológicas (Nanostructured Materials for Nanotechnology Applications)

Resumen: Mimic cell membranes are crucial for the understanding of cellular processes since the biological membrane is too complex to be deeply studied in vivo. In this Master’s Project, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and cholesterol (CHOL) constitute the model cell membrane in order to study their interaction with curcumin (CCM). In the last decades, this xenobiotic has become a relevant compound in encapsulated cell therapy and clinical trials because it exhibits anti-cancer, antioxidant, neuroprotector, antidepressant and anti-inflammatory effects. Consequently, a comprehensive study at the air-water interface of single, binary and ternary monolayers was performed by means of the Langmuir technique. The thermodynamic results are indicative of a partial miscibility between the components. In general, the miscibility increases as the monolayer is more condensed and, depending on the composition, the monolayers show more expanded phases as compared to those of the pure compounds. For both CCM-DPPC and CCM-CHOL binary monolayers, the most favourable mixture in terms of the steric and energetic effects is xCCM = 0.8. On the other hand, for the DPPC-CHOL binary monolayers, the most favourable mixture is xDPPC = 0.6. With respect to the ternary monolayers, the most favourable mixtures are xCCM = 0.2 and 0.4; it must be taken into account that the Eucaryotic cells contain DPPC-CHOL 1:1 and that the biological surface pressure is about 30 mN/m. Finally, selected Langmuir-Blodgett films were inspected by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM); the morphology of the images supports the conclusion of partial miscibility of the components as deduced from the thermodynamic study.

Tipo de Trabajo Académico: Trabajo Fin de Master