An ESR, Mass Spectrometry and Fluorescence microscopy approach to study the stearic acid derivatives anchoring in cells

Lateral phase separations in biological membranes are of great interest, making Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy combined with spin labelling a non destructive and sensitive technique for the study of lipid rafts. This is currently accepted that spin probe localization is on the plasma membrane. However, no study confirms this hypothesis. Herein, we report, for the first time, an accurate multi spectral method for the quantification of lipid spin label presence in every sub-cellular fraction. Cells were incubated with 5-doxyl stearic acid derivative and then sub-fractionated. Results of our multimodal spectroscopy approach ubiquitously demonstrate that the presence of ESR spin label only sets in the plasma membranes.