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The effect of lead acetate on the physical state of membrane lipids in human erythrocytes in vitro was studied using the lipophilic fluorescence probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene and spin probes 16-doxyl-stearate and iminoxyl palmitic acid. It was shown that 2-10 microM lead acetate causes an increase in both intensity and polarization of fluorescence of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene, indicating changes in the microviscosity of the lipid bilayer of erythrocyte membranes. Judging from the parameters of EPR spectra of 16-doxyl stearate and iminoxyl palmitic acid incorporated into erythrocyte membranes, 2-10 microM lead acetate increases the heterogeneity of the lipid bilayer in surface and deep hydrophobic layers of the erythrocyte membrane.

A method of electron paramagnetic resonance was applied to the study of a possibility of paramagnetic centres formation in the nitrogen oxide reaction with saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and aromatic amino acids. Several paramagnetic centres are formed in interaction of NO2 with oleic acid at 20 degrees C. Saturated fatty acids formed no paramagnetic centres in the reaction with NO2. NO formed no paramagnetic centres not only with butyric, palmitic, and stearic acids, but also with oleic acid. The capacity of NO2 to form paramagentic centres with tyrosine in its saturated solution was revealed. In case of interaction between NO and NO2 with saturated phenylalanine and tryptophane solutions no formation of paramagnetic centres was observed. It is suggested that unsaturated fatty acids and tyrosine remnants of the membrane lipoprotein complexes could serve as peculiar targets with which NO2 interacted, and that formation of paramagnetic centres in the NO2 reaction with the mentioned substances was the primary act of the membrane damage.

The retinol and retinylpalmitate content along with the retinylacetate and retinylpalmitate-hydrolase in the blood of the portal vein and in the peripheral blood from the superficial vein of the hind limb of dogs was determined in chronic experiments before and 1, 2, 3 and 4 hours after administration of the vitamin A preparations into the small intestine fistula. The introduction of an oily retinylacetate solution into the fistula was attended both by an increase of the retinylpalmitate content in the blood plasma and the appearance therein of the retinyl-palmitat-hydrolase activity. Introduction of an aquous-colloidal solution of retinyl-palmitate caused a rise in the latter's content in the blood but was not accompanied by the appearance of the retinyl-palmitate-hydrolase activity. In the blood taken on an empty stomach no capacity for retinyl-palmitate hydrolysis was in evidence. It is presumed that the emergence of the retinyl-palmitate activity in the blood following introduction of precisely the oily retinylacetate solution is due to an intensified supply of the pancreatic enzymes into the blood in response to the fat load. The retinylacetate-hydrolase activity was continually present in the blood and did not vary in its intensity in the dynamics of absorption.

Mechanisms of formalin--induced luminescence of protein-lipid complexes have been studied. Free radical reactions of lipid oxidation were shown to be necessary for generating luminescence quanta. The luminescence intensity was mostly promoted by fluorescing products formed in the reoxidized system protein-lipid. Formalin-induced flash of luminescence in these systems may evidently serve as an express-method for analysing protein sample contamination with unsaturated lipids.

The electric field set up by the dipoles of peptide groups ad other dipoles at the atoms of substrate and catalytic groups of alpha-chymotrypsin is considered. It is shown that substantial electric potentials reaching some tenths of volts exist in the active center of the enzyme, the fact which must influence significantly the reactivity of corresponding groups. In contrast to low molecular weight liquids, the contribution to the total potential of dipoles located at different distances from the point under consideration often changes nonmonotonically with the distance, sometimes the predominant influence being exerted not by the nearest polar groups but by the more distant ones. The existence of electric fields having a complex spatial configuration determined by the protein structure can be defined as the effect of the polar medium preorganization. Emphasis is placed on the necessity of taking into account the polarization of the external medium by charges of protein atoms and ions (the difference of primary and secondary electric fields).

Effect of polymyxin B on the planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) formed from synthetic phosphatidic acid has been studied. The addition of cholesterol to phospholipid in molar ratio 1 : 2 was followed by an increase of BLM conductance from 2 x 10(-8) to 3 x 10(-7) Ohm-1 cm-2. It was suggested that the observed increase of conductance was due to the fluidity of the membrane matrix in the presence of cholesterol. It was shown that 10(-6)--10(-5) M polymyxin slightly affected the conductance of BLM from phosphatidic acid. It was found that polymyxin increased conductance of negatively charged BLM modified by palmitic acid from 10(-8) to 10(-6) Ohm-1 cm-2.

Content of lipids and lipoprotein composition in blood did not reflect the intensity of lipogenesis in liver tissue of rats, which were kept on diets with high content of vegetable or animal fats. Both diets with excess of fat increased the rate of acetylation reaction in synthesis of glycerides and esterification of free cholesterol in liver tissue. In this case secretion of synthesized lipids into blood was decreased. Excess of vegetable oil, as distinct from animal fat, decreased the content of glycerides, pre-beta and beta-lipoproteins in blood and activated the synthesis of free cholesterol in liver tissue.