No abstract

Anionic liposomes can be coated on fused-silica capillaries for electrophoresis in the presence of N-(hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-ethanesulfonic acid) (HEPES) as background electrolyte (BGE) solution. In this work, the interaction of various compounds with zwitterionic and anionic phospholipid coatings was studied with HEPES at pH 7.4 as BGE solution. The chromatographic and electrophoretic behavior of three test sample solutions (anionic, cationic, and neutral) was investigated for evaluation of the phospholipid coatings. Our results show that hydrophobic interactions between analytes and the phospholipid coating are important for the migration of charged analytes. In addition, the performances of other piperazine-based buffers, i.e., N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-hydroxypropanesulfonic acid), piperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid), and piperazine-N,N'-bis(hydroxypropane sulfonic acid), at pH 7.4, as liposome solvent and BGE solution were evaluated and compared with the performance of HEPES at pH 7.4. The anionic liposome solution comprised 80/20 mol% phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylserine. A simple test solution was selected and the chromatographic and electrophoretic migration behavior of the analytes was evaluated. The results show that, in addition to HEPES, other piperazine-based buffers at pH 7.4 are suitable for coating of fused-silica capillaries with anionic liposomes.

Divalent cations affect the stability and structure of phospholipid vesicles and also the binding and immobilization of proteins into phospholipid membranes. The effect of calcium, magnesium, and zinc on zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine (PC) coatings in fused silica capillaries for electrophoresis was the primary interest in this work. In addition, the effect of temperature on the coating stability was investigated by coating 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) liposomes at temperatures above and below the gel- to fluid-state transition. All coatings were performed with PC large unilamellar vesicles (LUV) in 40 mM N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-ethanesulfonic acid) (HEPES) at pH 7.4 as basic solution. HEPES (40 mM) at pH 7.4 was used as background electrolyte (BGE) throughout the study. The stability of the coating was studied by measuring the electroosmotic flow. A molar ratio of 1:3 PC/Ca2+ or PC/Mg2+ gave the best coating stability owing to the increased rigidity of the phospholipid membrane furnished by the divalent metal ions. Better results were obtained with DPPC in the more rigid gel state than in the fluid state: the electroosmotic flow was much suppressed and the PC coating was stabilized. Coating the fused silica capillary with PC liposome-metal ion buffer solutions resulted in good electrophoretic separation of basic model proteins (pI-values 7.8-11.0). The electrophoretic results demonstrate the importance of stabilizing the phospholipid coating on fused silica capillaries, either by the addition of divalent metal ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, or Zn2+) or by working in the gel-state region of the phospholipid.