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Determination of bilayer thickness and lipid surface area in unilamellar dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles from small-angle neutron scattering curves: a comparison of evaluation methods

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Abstract

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments were performed on unilamellar 1,2-dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) vesicles prepared in heavy water by extrusion through polycarbonate filters with 500 Å pores. The data obtained at 30±0.1 °C were evaluated using a five-strip function model of the bilayer coherent neutron scattering length density, three different approximate form factors describing scattering from vesicles, and different methods of evaluation of the experimental data. It is shown that the results obtained from the SANS data in the range of scattering vector values 0.0316 Å−1<q<0.0775 Å−1 are not sensitive to the vesicle form factor, nor to the evaluation method. Using the hollow sphere model of vesicles convoluted with the Gaussian distribution of their sizes, a constrained bilayer polar region thickness of 9 Å and a DMPC headgroup volume of 325.5 Å3, it was possible to obtain from the experimental data the DMPC surface area as 58.9±0.8 Å2, the bilayer thickness as 44.5±0.3 Å and the number of water molecules as 6.8±0.2 per DMPC located in the bilayer polar region.

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Acknowledgements

N.K. and P.B. thank the staff of the Condensed Matter Division, Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia for hospitality, M.K. thanks the Laboratory of Biophysics, Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, for financial support and hospitality. The authors thank Prof. John F. Nagle for discussions at several stages of this work, Dr. Jeremy Pencer for critical reading of the manuscript of this paper and for helpful comments, and Prof. Stanislav Dubnička for generous support and encouragement. This study was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education VEGA grants 1/7704/2000 and 1/0123/2003 to P.B. and by the Comenius University grants UK/2/2001 and UK/13/2002 to N.K. The experiments in Dubna were supported within the JINR project 07-4-1031-99/03 "Investigation of the structure and dynamics of condensed matter with neutrons".

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Theory of Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, Kalinčiakova 8, 832 32 , Bratislava, Slovakia

    Norbert Kučerka

  2. Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 , Dubna, Moscow Region, Russia

    Mikhail A. Kiselev

  3. Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, Odbojárov 10, 832 32 , Bratislava, Slovakia

    Pavol Balgavý

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  1. Norbert Kučerka
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  2. Mikhail A. Kiselev
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  3. Pavol Balgavý
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Correspondence to Norbert Kučerka.

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Kučerka, N., Kiselev, M.A. & Balgavý, P. Determination of bilayer thickness and lipid surface area in unilamellar dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles from small-angle neutron scattering curves: a comparison of evaluation methods. Eur Biophys J 33, 328–334 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-003-0349-0

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