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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
Published on: September 1, 2023
Cationic DMPC/DMTAP lipid bilayers: local lateral polarization of phosphatidylcholine headgroups
Victor Levadny1, Masahito Yamazaki
1Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, 422-8529, Japan. spmyama@ipc.shizuoka.ac.jp
Abstract:
We investigated the effect of dimyristoyltrimethylammonium propane (DMTAP) charge on area per molecule of mixed DMTAP/dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayers in a simple model. Assuming that trimethylammonium (TAP) charge causes lateral polarization of neighboring PC molecules, we analyzed variation in area per molecule as the mole fraction of TAP increases. The theoretical predictions obtained in the present study are consistent with results of a recent molecular dynamics simulation study (Gurtovenko et al. Biophys. J. 2004, 86, 3461).
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