To advance our understanding of the organization of cholesterol within cell membranes, we used digitonin in freeze-fracture investigations of model lipid vesicles and tissues. Cholesterol suspensions or multilamellar liposomes composed of phosphatidylcholine with and without cholesterol were exposed to digitonin. Freeze-fracture replicas of those multilamellar liposomes containing cholesterol d...

We compared the abilities of free and liposome-incorporated Salmonella minnesota wild-type lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipid A to activate peritoneal macrophages and induce lethal toxicity in mice. Incorporation of lipid A into multilamellar vesicles resulted in a 100-fold-decreased potency to prime macrophages for phorbol myristate acetate-triggered release of H2O2. In addition, liposome inco...

The effect of human C-reactive protein incorporated into multilamellar vesicles (CRP-MLV) was studied in assays of macro phage function. Peritoneal exÃodate macrophages from C57BL/ 6 mice phagocytosed CRP-MLV in vitro more rapidly than multilamellar vesicles bearing comparable amounts of immunoglobulin G. Exposure of peritoneal exÃodate macrophages in vitro to CRP-MLV resulted in development of...

In this study we compared the ability of free- and liposome-incorporated murine recombinant gamma interferon (rIFN-gamma) to enhance peritoneal macrophage H2O2 release and antitoxoplasma activity in vitro. rIFN-gamma was efficiently (37 to 47%) incorporated into multilamellar vesicles composed of phosphatidylglycerol/cholesterol in a 2:1 molar ratio. The amount of rIFN-gamma incorporated into m...

To advance our understanding of the organization of cholesterol within cell membranes, we used digitonin in freeze-fracture investigations of model lipid vesicles and tissues. Cholesterol suspensions or multilamellar liposomes composed of phosphatidylcholine with and without cholesterol were exposed to digitonin. Freeze-fracture replicas of those multilamellar liposomes containing cholesterol d...

The effect of human C-reactive protein incorporated into multilamellar vesicles (CRP-MLV) was studied in assays of macrophage function. Peritoneal exudate macrophages from C57BL/6 mice phagocytosed CRP-MLV in vitro more rapidly than multilamellar vesicles bearing comparable amounts of immunoglobulin G. Exposure of peritoneal exudate macrophages in vitro to CRP-MLV resulted in development of tum...

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques have been applied to study the self-assembly processes of a microbially produced siderophore, marinobactin E (ME). ME is one of a series of marinobactins A-E that facilitate Fe(III) acquisition by the source bacterium through coordination of Fe(III) by the marinobactin headgroup. ME is a six-amino-acid peptide a...