The phase diagram of dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine and chain-perdeuterated distearoyl phosphatidylcholine A deuterium NMR spectral difference study

Insights into sphingolipid miscibility: separate observation of sphingomyelin and ceramide N-acyl chain melting

Ceramide produced from sphingomyelin in the plasma membrane is purported to affect signaling through changes in the membrane's physical properties. Thermal behavior of N-palmitoyl sphingomyelin (PSM) and N-palmitoyl ceramide (PCer) mixtures in excess water has been monitored by ²H NMR spectroscopy and compared to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data. The alternate use of either perdeuterated or proton-based N-acyl chain PSM and PCer in our ²H NMR studies has allowed the separate observation of gel-fluid transitions in each lipid in the presence of the other one, and this in turn has provided direct information on the lipids' miscibility over a wide temperature range. The results provide further evidence of the stabilization of the PSM gel state by PCer. Moreover, overlapping NMR and DSC data reveal that the DSC-signals parallel the melting of the major component (PSM) except at intermediate (20 and 30 mol %) fractions of PCer. In such cases, the DSC endotherm reports on the presumably highly cooperative melting of PCer. Up to at least 50 mol % PCer, PSM and PCer mix ideally in the liquid crystalline phase; in the gel phase, PCer becomes incorporated into PSM:PCer membranes with no evidence of pure solid PCer.

Pressure effects on the structure of lyotropic lipid mesophases and model biomembrane systems

Lipid systems, which provide valuable model systems for biological membranes, display a variety of polymorphic phases, depending on their molecular structure and environmental conditions. By use of X-ray and neutron diffraction the temperature- and pressure-dependent structure and phase behavior of lipid systems, differing in chain configuration and headgroup structure, have been studied. Besides lamellar phases also nonlamellar phases have been investigated. Hydrostatic pressure has been used as a physical parameter for studying the stability and energetics of lyotropic lipid mesophases, but also because high pressure is an important feature of certain natural membrane environments (e.g., marine biotopes) and because the high pressure phase behavior of biomolecules is of biotechnological interest (e.g., high pressure food processing). We demonstrate that temperature and pressure have noncongruent effects on the structural and phase behavior. By using the pressure-jump relaxation technique in combination with time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction, the kinetics of different lipid phase transformations was also investigated. The time constants for completion of the transitions depend on the direction of the transition, the symmetry and topology of the structures involved, and also on the pressure-jump amplitude. In addition, the effect of incorporating ions, steroids and polypeptides into bilayers on the temperature- and pressure-dependent phase behavior of the lipid systems is discussed.

Ceramide-1-phosphate, in contrast to ceramide, is not segregated into lateral lipid domains in phosphatidylcholine bilayers

Sphingolipids are key lipid regulators of cell viability: ceramide is one of the key molecules in inducing programmed cell death (apoptosis), whereas other sphingolipids, such as ceramide 1-phosphate, are mitogenic. The thermotropic and structural behavior of binary systems of N-hexadecanoyl-D-erythro-ceramide (C(16)-ceramide) or N-hexadecanoyl-D-erythro-ceramide-1-phosphate (C(16)-ceramide-1-phosphate; C(16)-C1P) with 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) was studied with DSC and deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance ((2)H-NMR). Partial-phase diagrams (up to a mole fraction of sphingolipids X = 0.40) for both mixtures were constructed based on DSC and (2)H-NMR observations. For C(16)-ceramide-containing bilayers DSC heating scans showed already at X(cer) = 0.025 a complex structure of the main-phase transition peak suggestive of lateral-phase separation. The transition width increased significantly upon increasing X(cer), and the upper-phase boundary temperature of the mixture shifted to approximately 65 degrees C at X(cer) = 0.40. The temperature range over which (2)H-NMR spectra of C(16)-ceramide/DPPC-d(62) mixtures displayed coexistence of gel and liquid crystalline domains increased from approximately 10 degrees for X(cer) = 0.1 to approximately 21 degrees for X(cer) = 0.4. For C16-C1P/DPPC mixtures, DSC and (2)H-NMR observations indicated that two-phase coexistence was limited to significantly narrower temperature ranges for corresponding C1P concentrations. To complement these findings, C(16)-ceramide/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and C16-C1P/POPC mixtures were also studied by (2)H-NMR and fluorescence techniques. These observations indicate that DPPC and POPC bilayers are significantly less perturbed by C(16)-C1P than by C(16)-ceramide and that C(16)-C1P is miscible within DPPC bilayers at least up to X(C1P) = 0.30.

Anomalous diffusion in a gel-fluid lipid environment: a combined solid-state NMR and obstructed random-walk perspective

Lateral diffusion is an essential process for the functioning of biological membranes. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is, a priori, a well-suited technique to study lateral diffusion within a heterogeneous environment such as the cell membrane. Moreover, restriction of lateral motions by lateral heterogeneities can be used as a means to characterize their geometry. The goal of this work is to understand the advantages and limitations of solid-state NMR exchange experiments in the study of obstructed lateral diffusion in model membranes. For this purpose, simulations of lateral diffusion on a sphere with varying numbers and sizes of immobile obstacles and different percolation properties were performed. From the results of these simulations, two-dimensional 31P NMR exchange maps and time-dependent autocorrelation functions were calculated. The results indicate that the technique is highly sensitive to percolation properties, total obstacle area, and, within certain limits, obstacle size. A practical example is shown, namely the study of the well-characterized DMPC-DSPC binary mixture. The comparison of experimental and simulated results yielded obstacle sizes in the range of hundreds of nanometers, therefore bridging the gap between previously published NMR and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching results. The method could also be applied to the study of membrane protein lateral diffusion in model membranes.

Temperature and pressure dependent growth and morphology of DMPC/DSPC domains studied by Brewster angle microscopy

In this work, the temperature and pressure dependent growth of domains in DMPC/DSPC monolayers at various molar ratios was studied by Brewster angle microscopy. Upon compression, roughly discoidal domains with some branching are formed. Further compression leads to an increase in both the number and the average size of the domains, which range between ca. 5 and 20 microm. The isobaric heating of the monolayers results in a gradual decrease of the domain size until their disappearance. The size and morphology of the domains depend not only on equilibrium parameters such as temperature, pressure and composition, but appear to be also strongly dependent on non-equilibrium parameters such as the rate of perturbation. The comparison between our results and those previously published for bilayers allows us to infer that the growth behaviour in monolayers can be qualitatively but not quantitatively extrapolated to bilayers.

Farnesol-DMPC phase behaviour: a 2H-NMR study

Involved in a number of diverse metabolic and functional contexts, farnesol is a central component of the mevalonate pathway, post-translationally attaches to proteins, and affects a number of other membrane-associated events. Despite farnesol's biological implications, a detailed analysis of how farnesol affects the physical properties and phase behaviour of lipid membranes is lacking. As (2)H-NMR spectra are sensitive to molecular motions and acyl chain orientation, they can be used to measure the degree of molecular order present in the system. Also, since the (2)H-NMR spectra of fluid and gel phase lipids are very different, they are sensitive probes of membrane phase equilibrium and can be used to determine fluid-gel phase boundaries. In this study, dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine-d(54) (DMPC-d(54)) bilayers containing varying concentrations of trans-trans farnesol (2.5-20.0 mol%) are investigated over a range of temperatures (8-30 degrees C). Analysis of these spectra has led to the construction of a farnesol-DMPC-d(54) temperature-composition plot. We show that increasing concentrations of farnesol induce a decrease in the fluid-gel phase transition temperature and promote fluid-gel coexistence. Interestingly, farnesol does not seem to affect the quadrupolar splittings (Delta v(Q)) in the fluid phase, i.e., the organization of farnesol within the bilayer and its interaction with phospholipids does not appreciably influence acyl chain order in the fluid phase.

Modulation of concentration fluctuations in phase-separated lipid membranes by polypeptide insertion

The lateral membrane organization and phase behavior of the binary lipid mixture DMPC (1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine) - DSPC (1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine) without and with incorporated gramicidin D (GD) as a model biomembrane polypeptide was studied by small-angle neutron scattering, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and by two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy on giant unilamellar vesicles. The small-angle neutron scattering method allows the detection of concentration fluctuations in the range from 1 to 200 nm. Fluorescence microscopy was used for direct visualization of the lateral lipid organization and domain shapes on a micrometer length scale including information of the lipid phase state. In the fluid-gel coexistence region of the pure binary lipid system, large-scale concentration fluctuations appear. Infrared spectral parameters were used to determine the peptide conformation adopted in the different lipid phases. The data show that the structure of the temperature-dependent lipid phases is significantly altered by the insertion of 2 to 5 mol% GD. At temperatures corresponding to the gel-fluid phase coexistence region the concentration fluctuations drastically decrease, and we observe domains in the giant unilamellar vesicles, which mainly disappear by the incorporation of 2 to 5 mol% GD. Further, the lipid matrix has the ability to modulate the conformation of the inserted polypeptide. The balance between double-helical and helical dimer structures of GD depends on the phospholipid chain length and phase state. A large hydrophobic mismatch, such as in gel phase one-component DSPC bilayers, leads to an increase in population of double-helical structures. Using an effective molecular sorting mechanism, a large hydrophobic mismatch can be avoided in the DMPC-DSPC lipid mixture, which leads to significant changes in the heterogeneous lipid structure and in polypeptide conformation.

An index of lipid phase diagrams

There is a growing awareness of the utility of lipid phase behavior data in studies of membrane-related phenomena. Such miscibility information is commonly reported in the form of temperature-composition (T-C) phase diagrams. The current index is a conduit to the relevant literature. It lists lipid phase diagrams, their components and conditions of measurement, and complete bibliographic information. The main focus of the index is on lipids of membrane origin where water is the dispersing medium. However, it also includes records on acylglycerols, fatty acids, cationic lipids, and detergent-containing systems. The miscibility of synthetic and natural lipids with other lipids, with water, and with biomolecules (proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, etc.) and non-biological materials (drugs, anesthetics, organic solvents, etc.) is within the purview of the index. There are 2188 phase diagram records in the index, the bulk (81%) of which refers to binary (two-component) T-C phase diagrams. The remainder is made up of more complex (ternary, quaternary) systems, pressure-T phase diagrams, and other more exotic miscibility studies. The index covers the period from 1965 through to July, 2001.

Synchrotron X-ray and neutron small-angle scattering of lyotropic lipid mesophases, model biomembranes and proteins in solution at high pressure

In this review we discuss the use of X-ray and neutron diffraction methods for investigating the temperature- and pressure-dependent structure and phase behaviour of lipid and model biomembrane systems. Hydrostatic pressure has been used as a physical parameter for studying the stability and energetics of lipid mesophases, but also because high pressure is an important feature of certain natural membrane environments and because the high pressure phase behaviour of biomolecules is of importance for several biotechnological processes. Using the pressure jump relaxation technique in combination with time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction, the kinetics of different lipid phase transformations was investigated. The techniques can also be applied to the study of other soft matter and biomolecular phase transformations, such as surfactant phase transitions and protein un/refolding reactions. Several examples are given. In particular, we present data on the pressure-induced unfolding and refolding of small proteins, such as Snase. The data are compared with the corresponding results obtained using other trigger mechanisms and are discussed in the light of recent theoretical approaches.

Power-law fluctuations in phase-separated lipid membranes

The spatial structure of three binary lipid mixtures, prepared as multilamellar vesicles, was studied by small-angle neutron scattering. In the fluid-gel coexistence region, large-scale concentration fluctuations appear which scatter like surface fractals for small acyl-chain mismatch and like mass fractals for large mismatch over about one decade of length. The transition is highly discontinuous: The fractal dimension of the boundary between the gel and fluid drops from 2.7 to 1.7, the gel fraction in the fluctuations drops from about 0.5 to 0.07, and the gel domains interlamellar correlation drops from strong to weak. We interpret the fluctuations as long-lived descendants of the incipient two-phase equilibrium state and the transition as due to changes in the gel rigidity and phase diagram.

Polymorphism of POPE/cholesterol system: a 2H nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopic investigation

It is well established that cholesterol induces the formation of a liquid-ordered phase in phosphatidylcholine (PC) bilayers. The goal of this work is to examine the influence of cholesterol on phosphatidylethanolamine polymorphism. The behavior of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (POPE)/cholesterol mixtures was characterized using infrared and 2H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy (using POPE bearing a perdeuterated palmitoyl chain in the latter case). Our results reveal that cholesterol induces the formation of a liquid-ordered phase in POPE membranes, similar to those observed for various PC/cholesterol systems. However, the coexistence region of the gel and the liquid-ordered phases is different from that proposed for PC/cholesterol systems. The results indicate a progressive broadening of the gel-to-fluid phase transition, suggesting the absence of an eutectic. In addition, there is a progressive downshift of the end of the transition for cholesterol content higher than 10 mol %. Cholesterol has an ordering effect on the acyl chains of POPE, but it is less pronounced than for the PC equivalent. This study also shows that the cholesterol effect on the lamellar-to-hexagonal (L(alpha)-H(II)) phase transition is not monotonous. It shifts the transition toward the low temperatures between 0 and 30 mol % cholesterol but shifts it toward the high temperatures when cholesterol content is higher than 30 mol %. The change in conformational order of the lipid acyl chains, as probed by the shift of the symmetric methylene C-H stretching, shows concerted variations. Finally, we show that cholesterol maintains its chain ordering effect in the hexagonal phase.

Time and distance scales of membrane domain organization

Time and distance scales in membranes are discussed in relation to the inference of domain structure from spectroscopic measurements. Each type of spectroscopy has a natural time scale set by the magnitude of the interactions that determine the spectral width. For fluid membranes, the lateral diffusion of the lipid molecules then implies an associated distance scale over which the measurements are averaged. These factors have an influence on the interpretation of spectroscopic measurements and on whether or not the spectroscopic technique is capable of distinguishing neighbouring domains from each other. NMR occupies a special place among spectroscopies because its time scale is so long. Some examples are given of the conceptual role of spectroscopic time and distance scales with regard to the inference of domains in membranes from NMR or other spectroscopic studies, or the apparent failure to detect domains believed to be present. These examples include mixtures of phospholipids with cholesterol and/or protein molecules. In addition to time scales being set by line width and line shape considerations, the study of relaxation times within a given spectroscopy carries its own characteristic insights into motional correlation times.

2H-NMR investigation of DMPC/glycophorin bilayers

Deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to investigate the phase equilibria, and the temperature and concentration dependences of the phospholipid hydrocarbon chain order, of mixtures of glycophorin in dimyristoylphosphatidyl-choline. In the fluid phase it is found that the protein has only a slight effect on the first moment of the 2H spectrum, which for perdeuterated chains is a direct measure of the average chain orientational order. However, analysis of the rate of change of the first moment with respect to protein concentration, at different temperatures within the fluid phase, shows that at a molar protein concentration of about 0.0295 +/- 0.01, the lipid chain order (or M1) is essentially independent of temperature. At this concentration the chain order is determined by the lipid's interaction with the protein and one can conclude that about 34 (+/- 12) lipids are required to solvate the protein. At higher lipid concentrations these lipids are freely exchanging, on the NMR time scale, with the other lipids in the bilayer. At glycophorin concentrations below about 1 mol% there is a two-phase coexistence region at temperatures below the pure lipid's chain melting transition. The boundary between the fluid phase and this two-phase region curves downwards (is concave downwards), whereas the boundary between the two-phase region and the gel phase, while naturally occurring at lower temperatures than the upper boundary, is concave upwards. As a consequence the protein partitions preferentially into the fluid phase. This behaviour is similar to that observed in a number of other protein/lipid and peptide/lipid mixtures where it was suggested that those systems may have been close to a critical mixing point and some characteristics of a continuous phase change were noted. Indeed, at glycophorin concentrations near and above 1 mol% there are indications that the phase behaviour becomes more complex, suggesting the presence of significant protein/protein interactions and that this system may be close to a critical point.

Deuterium magnetic resonance study of phase equilibria and membrane thickness in binary phospholipid mixed bilayers

The gel-fluid phase equilibrium in a two-component system formed from dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and distearoylphosphatidylcholine (DSPC) was investigated using solid-state wide-line 2H NMR spectroscopy. Analysis of the spectral first moments and the quantitation of gel and fluid phases by means of difference spectroscopy provided the temperature-composition phase diagrams. Phase diagrams were constructed for mixtures of perdeuterated DMPC, DMPC-d54, with DSPC and for the complementary system comprised of DMPC and perdeuterated DSPC, DSPC-d70. The gel-fluid coexistence region was found to extend over a wider range of temperature and composition for the DMPC-d54-DSPC system than for the DMPC-DSPC-d70 system. Comparison of these data with the phase diagram for the DMPC-DSPC system showed that in the gel-fluid region the fraction of lipids in the fluid phase at a given temperature and system composition decreases for the three systems in the order DMPC-d54-DSPC greater than DMPC-DSPC greater than DMPC-DSPC-d70. While the fluid fraction varies by as much as 90% among the three systems, the composition of the fluid phase, i.e., the ratio of the concentrations of the two molecules in the fluid phase, varies by about 20% over the whole temperature and system composition range. The effective acyl chain lengths of the DMPC-d54 and DSPC-d70 molecules as a function of temperature and composition in the fluid phase, when the system is all fluid or is in the gel-fluid coexistence region, were calculated from the quadrupole splittings in the axially symmetric powder patterns obtained for the all-fluid phase. The magnitudes of the coefficient of thermal expansion for both the DMPC-d54 and the DSPC-d70 molecules were smaller in the fluid phase of binary mixtures than in one-component bilayers containing either DSPC-d70 or DMPC-d54 alone. In addition, at any given temperature in the fluid phase, the increase in the acyl chain length of DMPC-d54 with increasing DSPC content of the system was smaller than the concomitant increase in the length of DSPC-d70 in mixtures with DMPC. In the entire temperature and composition range when the binary mixtures are in the all-fluid or in the gel-fluid coexistence region, the largest value obtained for the DMPC-d54 molecule in the fluid phase was smaller than the smallest value obtained for the DSPC-d70 molecule in the fluid phase. The acyl chain lengths were used to calculate the effective weighted-average thickness, d, of the fluid phase bilayer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Glycosphingolipid phase behaviour in unsaturated phosphatidylcholine bilayers: a 2H-NMR study

2H-NMR was employed to consider the arrangement of a glycosphingolipid, N-(lignoceroyl-d47)galactosylceramide, in bilayers of the mono-unsaturated phospholipid, 1-stearoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine. The deuterated glycolipid prepared by partial synthesis was incorporated at concentrations ranging from 5 mol% to 53 mol% into unsonicated liposomes, and its spectra were recorded from +76 degrees C to -10 degrees C. First spectral moments were plotted as a function of temperature for each sample composition and, along with inspection of the spectra, were employed to infer a phase diagram describing glycolipid behaviour in the unsaturated phospholipid host matrix. It was possible to refine the result using 2H-NMR difference spectroscopy. The phase diagram obtained was indicative of peritectic behaviour. At glycolipid concentrations exceeding about 20 mol% there was considerable tendency to glycolipid phase separation--as indicated by coexistence of fluid phospholipid-enriched and gel phase glycolipid-enriched domains over a wide range of temperatures, and by coexistence of distinct ordered phase domains at lower temperature. In contrast, at lower glycolipid concentrations reflective of many biological membranes, the lipid components were miscible in both the liquid crystal and gel phases, with only a narrow temperature range of fluid and ordered phase coexistence. For the fluid phase at low glycolipid concentrations, spectra of the deuterated glycolipid 24-carbon fatty acid suggest that orientational order is low for a number of methylene groups near the methyl end of the chain.

Physical properties of the fluid lipid-bilayer component of cell membranes: a perspective

The motivation for this review arises from the conviction that, as a result of the mass of experimental data and observations collected in recent years, the study of the physical properties of membranes is now entering a new stage of development. More and more, experiments are being designed to answer specific, detailed questions about membranes which will lead to a quantitative understanding of the way in which the physical properties of membranes are related to and influence their biological function.