Cation-Zwitterionic Lipid Interactions Are Affected by the Lateral Area per Lipid.

Interactions of the divalent cations Ca2+ and Mg2+ with the zwitterionic lipid bilayers prepared of a fully saturated dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) or a di-monounsaturated dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) were studied by using the neutron scattering methods and molecular dynamics simulations. The effect on the bilayer structural properties confirms the direct interactions in all cases studied. The changes are observed in the bilayer thickness and lateral area. The extent of these structural changes, moreover, suggests various mechanisms of the cation-lipid interactions. First, we have observed a small difference when studying DPPC bilayers in the gel and fluid phases, with somewhat larger effects in the former case. Second, the hydration proved to be a factor in the case of DOPC bilayers, with the larger effects in the case of less hydrated systems. Most importantly, however, there was a qualitative difference between the results of the fully hydrated DOPC bilayers and the others examined. These observations then prompt us to suggest an interaction model that is plausibly governed by the lateral area of lipid, though affected indirectly also by the hydration level. Namely, when the interlipid distance is small enough to allow for the multiple lipid-ion interactions, the lipid-ion-lipid bridges are formed. The bridges impose strong attractions that increase the order of lipid hydrocarbon chains, resulting in the bilayer thickening. In the other case, when the interlipid distance extends beyond a limiting length corresponding to the area per lipid of ∼65 Å2, Mg2+ and Ca2+ continue to interact with the lipid groups by forming the separate ion-lipid pairs. As the interactions proposed affect the lipid membrane structure in the lateral direction, they may prove to play their role in other mechanisms lying within the membrane multicomponent systems and regulating for example the lipid-peptide-ion interactions.

Solubilisation of model membrane by DDAO surfactant - partitioning, permeabilisation and liposome-micelle transition.

Solubilisation of model membranes of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) and DOPCcholesterol (CHOL) induced by surfactant N,N-dimethyl-1-dodecanamine-N-oxide (DDAO) was studied. At the maintained pH ~ 7.5, the DDAO molecules are in their neutral state with respect to the pK ~ 5. Pore formation in lipid bilayer was studied by fluorescence probe leakage method. The changes in the size of lipid aggregates upon increasing DDAO concentration were followed turbidimetrically. Effective ratio Re at different steps of the solubilisation process was determined. The molar partition coefficient of DDAO in case of the DOPC membrane is Kp = 2262 ± 379, for DOPC-CHOL membrane Kp = 2092 ± 594. Within the experimental error, the partition coefficient, as well as effective ratios Re, are not considerably influenced when one third of DOPC molecules is substituted with CHOL (DOPC:CHOL = 2:1). Constituents of buffer (50 mmol/dm3 PBS, 150 mmol/dm3 NaCl) caused aggregation of DOPC and DOPC-CHOL unilamellar liposomes at zero and low DDAO concentration, as was shown by SANS, turbidimetry and DIC microscopy. After solubilisation of bilayer structures by surfactant, mixed DOPC-DDAO and DOPC-CHOL-DDAO micelles with the shape of cylinders with elliptical cross section were detected.