Modulation of the orientational order profile of the lipid acyl chain in the L_α phase

Abstract

The orientational order profile along the lipid acyl chain has been characterized under several different conditions of polar headgroup composition, temperature, and cholesterol content. Despite the different nature of these factors, the variation of the order is governed by two common trends. First, the relative change of order induced by the variation of these factors is always more pronounced towards the end of the chain than for the methylene groups near the interface. Second, there is, to a first approximation, a distinct correlation between the magnitude of the order parameters and the shape of the order profile. For example when the chain is highly ordered, the relative width of the order distribution is narrow indicating that the plateau region is longer. These conclusions suggest that the orientational order profile depends on only a small number of parameters and demonstrate clearly that the correlation length for changes in orientational order is much greater than one C-C bond length. Our results also show that the reduced temperature is not related in simple terms to orientational order and probably has little theoretical significance. The orientational order profiles of POPC and POPE bilayers are significantly different even when expressed in terms of reduced temperature. The behavior of POPC/cholesterol systems also indicates that the orientational order of the lipid chain and the gel-to-liquid crystalline phase transition temperature are not related in a straightforward manner.