Effect of alcohol chain length on tubule formation in 1,2-bis(10,12-tricosadiynoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine

✍ Scribed by B.R. Ratna; S. Baral-Tosh; B. Kahn; J.M. Schnur; A.S. Rudolph

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 769 KB
• Volume: 63
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-3084
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-3084(92)90021-g

✦ Synopsis

Aqueous dispersions of 1,2-bis(10,12-tricosadiynoyl)-sn-giycero-3-phosphocholine, on cooling below the chain melting temperature, form hollow cylindrical structures known as 'tubules'. We have studied the formation of tubules in methanol/water, ethanol/water and n-propanol/water. For each alcohol, there is a defined window of alcohoFwater ratios in which the lipid precipitates with the tubule morphology. As the chain length of alcohol is increased, the window shifts towards lower alcohol fraction. Light scattering studies show that at very low lipid concentrations the tubules self-assemble directly from the isotropic phase where as for lipid concentrations greater than 4 mg/ml an intermediate L a phase is observed. These results indicate that the mechanism of tubule formarion may be dependent on lipid concentration.