Resumen:
e studied the thermal behavior of membranes composed of mixtures of natural cerebrosides (from porcine brain) and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) with and without cholesterol, using differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and confocal/multiphoton fluorescence microscopy. The POPC/cerebroside mixture display solid ordered/liquid disordered phase coexistence in a broad range of compositions and temperatures in agreement with previous results reported for POPC/(bovine brain)cerebrosides. The observed phase coexistence scenario consists of elongated, micrometer-sized cerebroside-rich solid ordered domains that span the bilayer, embedded in a POPC-rich liquid disordered phase. The data obtained from differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was in line with that obtained in the microscopy experiments for the binary mixture, except at very high cerebroside molar fractions (0.8-0.9) were some diff