The interfacial kinetic and binding data for the pancreatic and intestinal
sPLA2 from bird and mammals show that these enzymes have dramatically different ability to bind and hydrolyse phospholipids. The main conclusions from our experimental data indicate that phosphatidylcholine monolayers (PC), in contrast to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG), were resistant to the hydrolysis by human intestinal sPLA2. Conversely, chicken intestinal sPLA2 was found to be able to hydrolyse all the phospholipids tested, including PC. The experiments show also that the interfacial penetrating ability of chicken sPLA2 (from intestine and pancreas) was higher than their mammalian¡¯s orthologs. This observation is confirmed by the activity of pancreatic chicken PLA2 measured on PC film showing that the interfacial pressure window that permits sPLA2 activity was very large, between 5 and 20 dynes cm
?, compared with the porcine pancreatic sPLA2-
IB which was inactive at pressure above 15 dynes cm
?.
In trying to establish a structure¨Cfunction relationship, we examined the surface electrostatic potentials of the various sPLA2 from chicken and mammals. We reported in this study that the binding, orientation and persistence of sPLA2 at the lipid¨Cwater interface is probably governed by the electrostatic and hydrophobic forces operative at this surface. These variations argue strongly that these enzymes are not isoforms and that they are expected to have functions other than the release of lipid mediators for the biosynthesis of the eicosanoids.