Liquid Crystalline Phase Transition of Phospholipid Membranes

The feasibility of phospholipid phase transition phenomena in the propagation of nerve impulse as well as in information transfer in biological systems in general has been noted earlier. The phase transition of model and biomembranes exhibits considerable hysteresis.The possible role of fast and slow hysteresis phenomena in biomembranes for information storage was put forward by Trauble.  

The available data on physical changes in isolated axons upon excitation are summarized in Table 1. Comparison of these data with results from studies on phospholipid model membranes reveals a very close 

TABLE 1. Comparison of Phospholipid Liquid Crystalline - Crystalline (Cooling) Transition with Nerve Membrane During Excitation 

Exothermic Decreased Shift to higher frequencies Decreased Increased Increased Increased 

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