Solubilization of phospholipid bilayers by C₁₄-alkyl betaine/anionic mixed surfactant systems

Abstract

The mechanisms governing the solubilizing interactions between zwitterionic/anionic mixed surfactant systems at different molar fractions of the zwitterionic surfactant (X _zwitter) and unilamellar liposomes were investigated. Solubilization was detected as a decrease in static lightscattering of liposome suspensions. Three parameters were regarded as corresponding to the effective surfactant/lipid molar ratios (Re) at which the surfactant system a) saturated the liposomesRe _sat; b) resulted in 50% solubilization of liposomesRe _50%, and c) led to a complete solubilization of these structuresRe _sol. These parameters corresponded to theRe at which light scattering stars to decrease, reaches 50% of the original value and shows no further decrease. From these parameters the surfactant partition coefficients for these three steps (K _sat,K _50% andK _sol) were also determined. The mixed systems were formed byN-tetradecyl-N, N-dimethylbetaine (C₁₄-Bet) and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) in PIPES buffer at pH 7.20. Liposomes were formed by egg phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidic acid (9:1 molar ratio). When the range ofX _zwitter was about 0.4–0.6Re andK parameters showed a maximum, whereas the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of these systems exhibited a minimum. Given that the ability of the surfactant systems to solubilize liposomes is inversely related toRe _sol, this capacity appeared to be directly correlated with the CMC of the systems. The progressive rise ofK during the process indicates that an increasing surfactant partition equilibrium governs the interaction process from the saturation until the solubilization of vesicles, the free surfactant concentration remaining almost constant with similar values to the CMC for each mixed system studied.