Abstract:
Membrane lipid composition, which includes phospholipid (PL) headgroup, and fatty
acid (FA) saturation, has been shown to affect cellular function. The sarcolemma (SL)
membrane is integral to skeletal muscle function and health. Previous studies assessing
SL lipid composition are limited as they have 1) restricted analysis to a PL level and
neglected FA composition and 2) relied on aggressive membrane isolation procedures
resulting in t-tubule and sarcoplasmic reticulum contamination and unknown levels of
nuclear and mitochondrial contamination. Thus, to overcome these limitations, this study
assessed a method of individually skinned skeletal muscle fibres as an alternative to
analyze complete sarcolemmal membrane lipid composition. The major findings of this
study were 1) complete SL lipid composition can be obtained 2) the SL had higher
sphingomyelin content than previous studies and 3) the SL membrane had minimal
nuclear and mitochondrial contamination and was void of contamination from
sarcoplasmic reticulum and t-tubules.
