Phospholipids head-group regions

The region at the surface of membranes and the underlying phospholipid head-group region are of particular interest since these regions can vary considerably with variations in the membrane phospholipid composition and under the influence of external molecules such as ions and hydrophobic molecules. The fluorescence anisotropy parameter tends to be less useful for examining this region since it is already intrinsically disordered and the... 

The properties of membranes commonly studied by fluorescence techniques include motional, structural, and organizational aspects. Motional aspects include the rate of motion of fatty acyl chains, the head-group region of the phospholipids, and other lipid components and membrane proteins. The structural aspects of membranes would cover the orientational aspects of the lipid components. Organizational aspects include the distribution of lipids both laterally, in the plane of the membrane (e.g., phase separations), and across the membrane bilayer (phospholipid asymmetry) and distances from the surface or depth in the bilayer. Finally, there are properties of membranes pertaining to the surface such as the surface charge and dielectric properties. Fluorescence techniques have been widely used in the studies of membranes mainly since the time scale of the fluorescence lifetime coincides with the time scale of interest for lipid motion and since there are a wide number of fluorescence probes available which can be used to yield very specific information on membrane properties. 

The motional characteristics of interest are typically those governed by the phospholipid fatty acyl chains and head-group region and the neutral lipid or protein components of membranes. Rotational motion can be subdivided into a structural component, the order or degree of orientational constraint,... 

In addition to this thermotropic mesomorphism, a lysotropic mesomorphism is observed [98]. The phase transition temperature, Tt, for the transition from the crystalline to the liquid crystalline state decreases as a function of water content. The decrease in Ttis due to destabilization of the crystal lattice in the head group region by water molecules. This, in turn, decreases the interaction between the fatty acid chains. When the water content reaches a certain level, the phospholipids assume a thermodynamically optimal arrangements whereby the fatty acids are directed to the... 

The study of P relaxation times provides a specific method for observing dynamic events in the head group region of phospholipid dispersions and membranes [144]. Mn ions broaden only those resonances from nuclei on the outside of phospholipid vesicles, and therefore the percentages of lipids on the inside and outside surfaces can be calculated [145]. 

Apart from the type of phospholipids the formation of phospholipid structures such as bilayers, micelles or inverted micelles are directly dependent on the degree of hydration, the hydrophobic forces on the tatty acyl chains, and the electrostatic forces that are present on the polar head group region of the bilayer. The properties of the aqueous medium (pH, ionic strength, dielectric properties) are factors that influence the type of phospholipid structures. 

Recently, a molecular dynamics study of the phospholipid DLPE was reported by Damodaran et al. using a united atom model. The model was built from the crystal structure of DLPE reported by Elder et al. The fully hydrated DLPE bilayer has an interlamellar water layer of 5 A. The bilayer was solvated by 553 SPCE waters ( 11 water molecules/lipid) in the head group region. This lipid has a gel-to-liquid-crystalline transition temperature of... 

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