Growth Conditions and Cell Cycle Phase Modulate Phase Transition Temperatures in RBL-2H3 Derived Plasma Membrane Vesicles

Giant plasma membrane vesicle (GPMV) isolated from a flask of RBL-2H3 cells appear uniform at physiological temperatures and contain coexisting liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases at low temperatures. While a single GPMV transitions between these two states at a well-defined temperature, there is significant vesicle-to-vesicle heterogeneity in a single preparation of cells, and average transition temperatures can vary significantly between preparations. In this study, we explore how GPMV transition temperatures depend on growth conditions, and find that average transition temperatures are negatively correlated with average cell density over 15°C in transition temperature and nearly three orders of magnitude in average surface density. In addition, average transition temperatures are reduced by close to 10°C when GPMVs are isolated from cells starved of serum overnight, and elevated transition temperatures are restored when serum-starved cells are incubated in serum-containing media for 12 h. We also investigated variation in transition temperature of GPMVs isolated from cells synchronized at the G1/S border through a double Thymidine block and find that average transition temperatures are systematically higher in GPMVs produced from G1 or M phase cells than in GPMVs prepared from S or G1 phase cells. Reduced miscibility transition temperatures are also observed in GPMVs prepared from cells treated with TRAIL to induce apoptosis or sphingomyelinase, and in some cases a gel phase is observed at temperatures above the miscibility transition in these vesicles. We conclude that at least some variability in GPMV transition temperature arises from variation in the local density of cells and asynchrony of the cell cycle. It is hypothesized that GPMV transition temperatures are a proxy for the magnitude of lipid-mediated membrane heterogeneity in intact cell plasma membranes at growth temperatures. If so, these results suggest that cells tune their plasma membrane composition in order to control the magnitude of membrane heterogeneity in response to different growth conditions.