Analytical Sciences

Enhancement of Firefly Bioluminescence Using LiposomesContaining Cationic Components

Tamio KAMIDATE * , Taigo FUJITA,Hirofumi TANI and Hiroto WATANABE

Graduate School of Engineering,Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan

The effect of cationic components in liposome on thebioluminescence (BL) intensity from the firefly luciferin-luciferasereaction with ATP was investigated by use of vesicles formed by theextrusion technique (VET). Stearyltrimethyl-ammonium chloride (STAC),stearylamine (SA) and tetracaine (TC) were used as cationic components. TheVET containing STAC and SA enhanced the maximum BL intensity. In contrast,a lowering of the maximum BL intensity was observed in the presence of theVET containing TC. The sensitivity for ATP in the presence of the VETcontaining STAC was improved by a factor of 2 and 10 times compared to thatin the presence of the VET containing SA and that in water alone,respectively. The differences in the BL enhancement between cationiccomponents could be explained in terms of different membrane surfacepotentials of the VET containing these cationc components. (Keywords: Firefly bioluminescence, adenosine-5'-triphosphate,liposome, stearyltrimethylammonium chloride, stearylamine, membrane surfacepotential)

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