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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
Published on: September 1, 2023
A layer model of ethanol partitioning into lipid membranes
David T Nizza1, Klaus Gawrisch
1Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9410, U.S.A.
Abstract:
The effect of membrane composition on ethanol partitioning into lipid bilayers was assessed by headspace gas chromatography. A series of model membranes with different compositions have been investigated. Membranes were exposed to a physiological ethanol concentration of 20 mmol/l. The concentration of membranes was 20 wt% which roughly corresponds to values found in tissue. Partitioning depended on the chemical nature of polar groups at the lipid/water interface. Compared to phosphatidylcholine, lipids with headgroups containing phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylserine, and sphingomyelin showed enhanced partitioning while headgroups containing phosphatidylethanolamine resulted in a lower partition coefficient. The molar partition coefficient was independent of a membrane's hydrophobic volume. This observation is in agreement with our previously published NMR results which showed that ethanol resides almost exclusively within the membrane/water interface. At an ethanol concentration of 20 mmol/l in water, ethanol concentrations at the lipid/water interface are in the range from 30-15 mmol/l, corresponding to one ethanol molecule per 100-200 lipids.
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