Lateral organization of complex lipid mixtures from multiscale modeling.

The organizational properties of complex lipid mixtures can give rise to functionally important structures in cell membranes. In model membranes, ternary lipid-cholesterol (CHOL) mixtures are often used as representative systems to investigate the formation and stabilization of localized structural domains ("rafts"). In this work, we describe a self-consistent mean-field model that builds on molecular dynamics simulations to incorporate multiple lipid components and to investigate the lateral organization of such mixtures. The model predictions reveal regions of bimodal order on ternary plots that are in good agreement with experiment. Specifically, we have applied the model to ternary mixtures composed of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine:18:0 sphingomyelin:CHOL. This work provides insight into the specific intermolecular interactions that drive the formation of localized domains in these mixtures. The model makes use of molecular dynamics simulations to extract interaction parameters and to provide chain configuration order parameter libraries.

Self-consistent mean-field model for palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine-palmitoyl sphingomyelin-cholesterol lipid bilayers.

The connection between membrane inhomogeneity and the structural basis of lipid rafts has sparked interest in the lateral organization of model lipid bilayers of two and three components. In an effort to investigate anisotropic lipid distribution in mixed bilayers, a self-consistent mean-field theoretical model is applied to palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine (POPC)--palmitoyl sphingomyelin (PSM)--cholesterol mixtures. The compositional dependence of lateral organization in these mixtures is mapped onto a ternary plot. The model utilizes molecular dynamics simulations to estimate interaction parameters and to construct chain conformation libraries. We find that at some concentration ratios the bilayers separate spatially into regions of higher and lower chain order coinciding with areas enriched with PSM and POPC, respectively. To examine the effect of the asymmetric chain structure of POPC on bilayer lateral inhomogeneity, we consider POPC-lipid interactions with and without angular dependence. Results are compared with experimental data and with results from a similar model for mixtures of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine, steroyl sphingomyelin, and cholesterol.