Influence of the interdigitated gel phase in mixtures of ether-linked and monofluorinated ester-linked phospholipids

To evaluate the influence of the hydrocarbon chain linkage on the thermodynamic phase behavior of spontaneously interdigitating lipids, mixtures of ether-linked 1,2-di-O-hexadecyl-phosphocholine (DHPC) and ester-linked 1-palmitoyl-2-[16-fluoropalmitoyl]sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (F-DPPC) were studied. A combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), fluorescence spectroscopy, and transmittance spectrophotometry was used. Small amounts of F-DPPC increase the pretransition temperature (T(p)) between the interdigitated gel phase (L(β)I) and the ripple gel phase (P(β)'). There are some signs of immiscibility where the non-interdigitated lipid is present in the phase diagram. However, at around 20mol.% F-DPPC, the pretransition merges with the main transition and is no longer detectable as a separate entity. Additionally, the T(m) hysteresis increases steadily with higher mole fractions of F-DPPC. These results support that incorporating F-DPPC progressively stabilizes the L(β)I phase of DHPC until the membrane is fully interdigitated below the main transition temperature (T(m)). The mixtures of F-DPPC and DHPC are miscible once the membrane is entirely interdigitated in the gel phase. Therefore, the ability of both lipids to interdigitate is an important factor controlling gel phase miscibility. Our results also demonstrate that the gel phase behavior of DHPC is highly sensitive to changes in its environment.