Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 104, Issue 45, Pages 17650-17655Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0703513104
Keywords
lipid rafts; liquid-immiscibility; NMR relaxation; phase diagram; critical behavior
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Funding
- Intramural NIH HHS Funding Source: Medline
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Critical fluctuations are investigated in lipid membranes near miscibility critical points in bilayers composed of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine, chain perdeuterated dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine, and cholesterol. Phase boundaries are mapped over the temperature range from 10 degrees C to 60 degrees C by deuterium NMR. Tie-lines and three-phase triangles are evaluated across two-phase and three-phase regions, respectively. In addition, a line of miscibility critical points is identified. NMR resonances are broadened in the vicinity of critical points, and broadening is attributed to increased transverse relaxation rates arising from modulation of chain order with correlation times on a microsecond time scale. We conclude that spectral broadening arises from composition fluctuations in the membrane plane with dimensions of < 50 nm and speculate that similar fluctuations are commonly found in cholesterol-containing membranes.
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