Acyl-Chain Mismatch Driven Superlattice Arrangements in DPPC/DLPC/Cholesterol Bilayers

Fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy and cholesterol oxidase activity were employed to investigate the effect of phosphatidylcholine (PC) acyl chain length mismatch on the lateral organizations of lipids in liquidordered dipalmitoyl-PC/dilauroyl-PC/cholesterol (DPPC/DLPC/CHOL) bilayers. Plots of steady-state fluorescence emission anisotropy of diphenylhexatriene (DPH) labeled PC (DPH-PC) embedded in the DPPC/ DLPC/CHOL bilayers revealed significant peaks at several DPPC mole fractions (YDPPC) when the cholesterol mole fraction (XCHOL) was fixed to particular values. Analogously, the DPH-PC anisotropy peaked at several critical XCHOL’s when YDPPC was fixed. Acyl chain C-H and CdO vibrational peak frequencies of native PC as well as the activity of cholesterol oxidase also revealed dips and peaks at similar YDPPC’s. Importantly, most of the observed peaks/dips coincide with the critical mole fractions predicted by the Superlattice (SL) model. A three-dimensional map of DPH-PC anisotro