J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130 (6), 2067 -2072, 2008. 10.1021/ja710305c S0002-7863(71)00305-6
Web Release Date: January 23, 2008

Copyright © 2008 American Chemical Society

Lipid Bilayer Discs and Banded Tubules: Photoinduced Lipid Sorting in Ternary Mixtures

Jing Yuan, Steven M. Hira, Geoffrey F. Strouse, and Linda S. Hirst*

MARTECH (Center for Materials Science and Technology) and the Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4350

hirst@martech.fsu.edu

Received November 13, 2007

This paper contains enhanced objects available on the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

Abstract:

The self-assembly of biological amphiphiles has proved a fascinating topic in recent years, the hollow cylindrical lipid tubule morphology being of particular interest due to its potential applications in "soft" microtechnologies. Lateral coexistence of liquid-ordered (lo) and liquid-disordered (ld) phases, which may resemble raft formation in cell membranes, was investigated in lipid tubules, prepared from 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, egg-sphingomyelin, and cholesterol. Fluorescence microscopy shows that the appearance of micrometer-scale lo domains in the lipid tubule is not an intrinsic phase behavior of the system but a consequence of photoinduced lipid peroxidation. Most interestingly, new photoinduced bilayer structures: lipid discs, essentially stable flattened liposomes, were observed for the first time in a model membrane system. This investigation not only aids in our understanding of lipid sorting phenomena in cell membranes but also demonstrates how control of this process may provide a route to the generation of new, functional structures.

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