Hydrated cholesterol: phospholipid domains probed by synchrotron radiation

X-ray scattering experiments on mixed films of cholesterol and phospholipids at air-water and Si solid-water interfaces were undertaken to glean information on pathological crystallization of cholesterol bilayers. Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction patterns at the air-water interface of various cholesterol:dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (Ch:DPPC) monolayer mixtures compressed beyond monolayer collapse yielded the established 10 x 7.5 Ų Ch bilayer motif, for Ch:DPPC molar ratios higher than 2.5:1. Attempts to obtain a diffraction signal from various Ch:phospholipid film mixtures at the Si solid-water interface, indicative of the presence of the Ch bilayer motif, were unsuccessful. Only after removal of sufficient water from the cell was a weak diffraction signal obtained suggestive of a cholesterol film two bilayers thick. Off-specular X-ray reflectivity measurements made on a 1.75:1 mixture of Ch and bovine cardiac phosphatidylcholine (BCPC) deposited as a bilayer on a Si wafer and placed in a cell filled with water yielded positive results. The derived electron density profile showed the presence of a bilayer mixture consistent with a phase separation of cholesterol and BCPC, and possible formation of a crystalline cholesterol bilayer within the hydrated mixed bilayer, but not a proof thereof.