Surface behaviour of bile salts and tetrahydrolipstatin at air/water and oil/water interfaces

The surface behaviour of two bile salts, sodium deoxycholate (NaDC) and sodium taurodeoxycholate (NaTDC), as well as that of tetrahydrolipstatin (THL), a potent gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor, was studied at air/water and oil/water interfaces, using interfacial tensiometry methods. The surface behaviour of NaDC and NaTDC was comparable at both oil/water and air-water interfaces. A fairly compact interfacial monolayer of bile salts is formed well below the critical micellar concentration (CMC) and can help to explain the well-known effects of bile salts on the kinetic behaviour of pancreatic lipases. Using the Wilhelmy plate technique, the surface pressure-molecular area curves recorded with THL at the air/water interface showed a collapse point at a surface pressure of 24.5 mN.m(-1). corresponding to a molecular area of 70 Angstrom (2). Surprisingly, using the oil drop method. a limiting molecular area of 160 Angstrom (2) was found to exist at the oil/water interface. On the basis of the above data, space-filling models were proposed for bile salts and THL at air/water and oil/water interfaces. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.