The study of membrane protein folding is a new and challenging research field. Consequently, there are few direct studies on the in vitro folding of membrane proteins. This review covers work aimed at understanding folding mechanisms and the intermolecular forces that drive the folding of integral membrane proteins. We discuss the kinetic and thermodynamic studies that have been undertaken. Our review also draws on closely related research, mainly from purification studies of functional membrane proteins, and gives an overview of some of the successful methods. A brief survey is also given of the large body of mutagenesis and fragment work on membrane proteins, as this too has relevance to the folding problem. It is noticeable that the choice of solubilizing detergents and lipids can determine the success of the method, and indeed it appears that particular lipid properties can be used to control the rate and efficiency of folding. This has important ramifications for much in vitro folding work in that it aids our understanding of how to obtain and handle folded, functional protein. With this in mind, we also cover some relevant properties of model, lipid-bilayer systems.

Since the reported alterations of permeability of the blood-brain barrier by microwave radiation have implications for safety considerations in man, studies were conducted to replicate some of the initial investigations. No transfer of parenterally-administered fluorescein across the blood-brain barrier of rats after 30 min of 1.2-GHz radiation at power densities from 2--75 mW/cm2 was noted. Increased fluorescein uptake was seen only when the rats were made hyperthermic in a warm-air environment. Similarly, no increase of brain uptake of 14C-mannitol using the Oldendorf dual isotope technique was seen as a result of exposure to pulsed 1.3-GHz radiation at peak power densities up to 20 mW/cm2, or in the continuous wave mode from 0.1--50 mW/cm2. An attempt to alter the permeability of the blood-brain barrier for serotonin with microwave radiation was unsuccessful. From these studies it would appear that the brain must be made hyperthermic for changes in permeability of the barrier induced by microwave radiation to occur.

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Protein folding has been at the forefront of molecular cell biology research for several years. However, integral membrane proteins have eluded detailed molecular level study until recently. One reason is the often apparently insurmountable problem of mimicking the natural membrane bilayer with lipid or detergent mixtures. There is nevertheless a large body of information on lipid properties and in particular on phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine lipids, which are common to many biological membranes. We have exploited this knowledge to design efficient in vitro, lipid-bilayer folding systems for membrane proteins. Bacteriorhodopsin has been used as a model system for our initial studies: we have shown that a rate-limiting apoprotein folding step and the overall folding efficiency seem to be controlled by particular properties of the lipid bilayer. The properties of interest are the stored curvature elastic energy within the bilayer and the lateral pressure that the lipid chains exert on their neighbouring folding protein. These are generic properties of the bilayer that can be achieved with simple mixtures of many types of biological lipid and seem to be important in vivo.

This paper describes the effect of field orientation on the hyperthermia produced by microwave irradiation. Rats exposed in the E-orientation (long-axis of animal parallel to E-field) to 1600 tmhz radiation become significantly hotter than those exposed in the H-field at the same power density. Norepinephrine and dopamine, but not serotonin content of the basal hypothalamus is reduced as a concomitant of microwave-induced brain hyperthermia.