Assignment of methylene proton resonances in NMR spectra of embryonic and transformed cells to plasma membrane triglyceride

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry Vol. 261; no. 7; pp. 3048 - 3053
• Main Authors: May, G L, Wright, L C, Holmes, K T, Williams, P G, Smith, I C, Wright, P E, Fox, R M, Mountford, C E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bethesda, MD Elsevier Inc 05.03.1986; American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma - analysis; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Line; Cell physiology; Cell transformation and carcinogenesis. Action of oncogenes and antioncogenes; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Chickens; Fibroblasts - analysis; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Lipoproteins, VLDL - analysis; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental - analysis; Membrane Lipids; Molecular and cellular biology; Rats; Triglycerides; Human; Embryo; Transformed cell; Plasma membrane; Lipids; Tumor; NMR spectrometry; Cell transformation; Triglyceride; Tumor cell
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0021-9258(17)35744-7

Some biological characteristics of cancer cells and solid tumors are identifiable by the high resolution NMR relaxation behavior of their nonaqueous components. Chemical analysis and two-dimensional scalar correlated (COSY) NMR spectroscopy show these resonances arise from neutral lipid in the plasma membrane. Triglyceride is shown to be the main plasma membrane component giving rise to the NMR spectrum, while soluble nonmembrane components account for 90% of the remaining resonances in the spectrum of intact cells. The presence of triglyceride has been detected by chemical analysis in highly purified plasma membranes from two different cell lines. The COSY spectra of cancer cells are comparable with that obtained for the triglyceride-rich very low density human lipoprotein.