Sphingomyelin distribution in lipid rafts of artificial monolayer membranes visualized by Raman microscopy

Significance Phase separation in lipid rafts has been observed with fluorescently labeled lipids, but they are often excluded from the ordered domain because of the steric effect of the bulky fluorophore on lipid packing, making it difficult to analyze the interior of the raft domain. Here, we synthesized an analog of sphingomyelin tagged with a small Raman active diyne moiety, which provides high chemical selectivity without affecting the membrane properties. Raman microscopy successfully visualized, at single lipid-layer sensitivity, a heterogeneous spatial distribution of this probe within raft-like ordered domains, which was different from the generally accepted raft model. This approach provides both chemical selectivity and quantitative imaging capability and is useful for functional studies of lipid rafts. Sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol (chol)-rich domains in cell membranes, called lipid rafts, are thought to have important biological functions related to membrane signaling and protein trafficking. To visualize the distribution of SM in lipid rafts by means of Raman microscopy, we designed and synthesized an SM analog tagged with a Raman-active diyne moiety (diyne-SM). Diyne-SM showed a strong peak in a Raman silent region that is free of interference from intrinsic vibrational modes of lipids and did not appear to alter the properties of SM-containing monolayers. Therefore, we used Raman microscopy to directly visualize the distribution of diyne-SM in raft-mimicking domains formed in SM/dioleoylphosphatidylcholine/chol ternary monolayers. Raman images visualized a heterogeneous distribution of diyne-SM, which showed marked variation, even within a single ordered domain. Specifically, diyne-SM was enriched in the central area of raft domains compared with the peripheral area. These results seem incompatible with the generally accepted raft model, in which the raft and nonraft phases show a clear biphasic separation. One of the possible reasons is that gradual changes of SM concentration occur between SM-rich and -poor regions to minimize hydrophobic mismatch. We believe that our technique of hyperspectral Raman imaging of a single lipid monolayer opens the door to quantitative analysis of lipid membranes by providing both chemical information and spatial distribution with high (diffraction-limited) spatial resolution.