Appearance of homogeneous smectic multilamellar microenvironments in biomembranes undergoing superoxide-initiated lipid peroxidation: lipid-dienyl radical accumulation and fluidity management in lipid bilayers.

Erythrocyte ghosts were exposed to various levels of oxyradical shock in order to identify the extent of accumulation of peroxidative intermediates. Malondialdehyde reacting end products were the same in all different models. But, the accumulation of dienyl radical species increased with higher intensity of oxyradical shock. These dienyl radicals may rearrange to create a homogeneous smectic multilamellar microenvironment which may be more fluid in terms of the molecular dynamics.