Effect of monoglyceride structure and cholesterol content on water permeability of the droplet bilayer

The process of water permeation across lipid membranes has significant implications for cellular physiology and homeostasis, and its study may lead to a greater understanding of the relationship between the structure of lipid bilayer and the role that lipid structure plays in water permeation. In this study, we formed a droplet interface bilayer (DIB) by contacting two aqueous droplets together in an immiscible solvent (squalane) containing bilayer-forming surfactant (monoglycerides). Using the DIB model, we present our results on osmotic water permeabilities and activation energy for water permeation of an associated series of unsaturated monoglycerides as the principal component of droplet bilayers, each having the same chain length but differing in the position and number of double bonds, in the absence and presence of a varying concentration of cholesterol. Our findings suggest that the tailgroup structure in a series of monoglyceride bilayers is seen to affect the permeability and activation energy for the water permeation process. Moreover, we have also established the insertion of cholesterol into the droplet bilayer, and have detected its presence via its effect on water permeability. The effect of cholesterol differs depending on the type of monoglyceride. We demonstrate that the DIB can be employed as a convenient model membrane to rapidly explore subtle structural effects on bilayer water permeability.