The influence of the chain length of aldehydes on the fluorescence of chromolipids.

Incubation of phosphatidylethanolamine containing liposomes with malondialdehyde and other aldehydes with different chain lengths results in the fluorescence of chromolipids. Relative to malondialdehyde, the fluorescence was greatly enhanced with increasing chain length upon incubation of 2-alkenals with phospholipids. Similar results were found using the total lipid extracted from erythrocyte ghosts. It seems that the hydrophobic character of the aldehydes is important for the amount of fluorescence detected in lipid bilayers.