Liquid-liquid domain miscibility driven by composition and domain thickness mismatch in ternary lipid monolayers

MARIA LAURA FANANI; BRUNO MAGGIO

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington DC; Año: 2011 vol. 115 p. 41 - 41

p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-INDENT: 35.4pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal">This work describes how changes in surface pressure modulate the molecular organization of Langmuir monolayers formed by ternary mixtures of dlPC/pSM/Dchol that exhibit coexistence of liquid-expanded (LE) and liquid-ordered (Lo) phases. It provides a theoretical framework for understanding the pressure-induced critical miscibility point characteristic of monolayer systems with liquid-liquid phase coexistence. From compression isotherms and Brewster Angle Microscopy of Langmuir monolayers with a composition close to a tie line, we determined experimental values of mean molecular areas, surface potential, monolayer thickness, and could estimate the mean molecular area and composition of each coexisting phase. A surface pressure-induced enrichment of the PC component in the Lo phase reduces both the compositional