Planar confined water organisation in lipid bilayer stacks of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine

Abstract

A new model for describing three different water regions in phospholipid bilayer stacks is proposed, concerning (i) a core layer of ‘free water’ (unperturbed water), (ii) ‘perturbed water’ near the membrane interface, and (iii) the ‘headgroup water’.

From angular to round: in depth interfacial analysis of binary phosphatidylethanolamine mixtures in the inverse hexagonal phase

“…The value of the fluctuation distance, σ , being in the order of 0.3 nm compares very well to the σ published for 1,2-dimyristoyl- sn -glycero-3-phospho-ethanolamine (DMPE) in the smectic phase at 80 °C. 42,55…”

“…It can indeed be expected that any curved membrane contains a curvature-dependent mechanical stress distribution, 56 which in turn will lead to local variations in hydration properties of lipid/water interface. Noteworthy, local variations in hydration properties go hand in hand with changes in repulsive undulation and attractive van der Waals forces, 55 and hence might be decisive for a deeper understanding of biomembrane interactions with its extracellular world. 57…”