Nanodomain Formation in Planar Supported Lipid Bilayers Composed of Fluid and Polymerized Dienoyl Lipids

Polymerization of synthetic phospholipid monomers has been widely used to enhance the stability of lipid membranes in applications such as membrane-based biosensing, where the inherent instability of fluid-phase lipid bilayers can be problematic. However, lipid polymerization typically decreases membrane fluidity, which may be required to maintain the activity of reconstituted integral proteins and peptides. Prior work has shown that a bilayer composed of binary mixtures of poly(lipid) and fluid lipid exhibits enhanced stability and supports the function of incorporated biomolecules. This work examines the structural basis of these findings using planar supported lipid bilayers (PSLBs) composed of binary mixtures of a polymerizable lipid, 1,2-bis[10-(2',4'-hexadienoloxy)decanoyl]-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (bis-SorbPC), and a nonpolymerizable lipid, 1,2-diphytanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPhPC). Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) measurements showed that long-range lateral diffusion was minimally affected when the poly(lipid) mole ratio was ≤0.7. Atomic force microscopy, used to examine phase segregation in these PSLBs, showed that DPhPC forms a continuous lipid matrix that is 0.2-0.4 nm thicker than the island-like poly(bis-SorbPC) domains, with lateral dimensions of ≤200 nm. The nanoscale phase segregation allows for long-range lateral diffusion of lipid probes in the DPhPC matrix. The combination of fluidity and stability in these materials should make them useful in membrane-based biosensing applications.