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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
Published on: September 1, 2023
Line active hybrid lipids determine domain size in phase separation of saturated and unsaturated lipids
Robert Brewster1, Samuel A Safran
1Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA. brewster@caltech.edu
Abstract:
A simple model of the line activity of a hybrid lipid (e.g., POPC) with one fully saturated chain and one partially unsaturated chain demonstrates that these lipids preferentially pack at curved interfaces between phase-separated saturated and unsaturated domains. We predict that the domain sizes typically range from tens to hundreds of nm, depending on molecular interactions and parameters such as molecular volume and area per headgroup in the bulk fluid phase. The role of cholesterol is taken into account by an effective change in the headgroup areas and the domain sizes are predicted to increase with cholesterol concentration.
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