The Use of Dodecylphosphocholine Micelles in Solution NMR

Abstract Dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles are useful as a model membrane system for solution NMR. Several new observations on dodecylphosphocholine micelles and their interactions with opioid peptides are described. The optimal lipid concentration has been investigated for small peptide NMR studies in DPC micelles for two opioid peptides, a 5-mer and a 17-mer. In contrast to reports in the literature, identical 2D spectra have been observed at low and high lipid concentrations. The chemical shift of resolved peptide proton resonances has been followed as a function of added lipid and indicates that there are changes in the chemical shifts above the critical micelle concentration and up to a ratio of 7:1 (lipid:peptide) for the 17-mer, and 9.6:1 for the 5-mer. These results suggest that conformational changes occur in the peptide significantly above the critical micelle concentration, up to a lipid:peptide ratio which is dependent upon the peptide, here ranging from 7:1 to 9.6:1. To address the stoichiometry more directly, the diffusion coefficients of the lipid alone and the lipid with peptide have been measured using pulsed-field gradient spin-echo NMR experiments. These data have been used to calculate the hydrodynamic radius and the aggregation number of the micelle with and without peptide and show that the aggregation number of the peptide-lipid complex increases at high lipid concentrations without a concomitant change in the peptide conformation. Last, several protonated impurities have been observed in the commercial preparation of DPC which resonate in the amide proton region of the NMR spectrum. These results are significant for researchers using DPC micelles and illustrate that both care in sample preparation and the stoichiometry are important issues with the use of DPC as a model membrane.