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Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Lipid Melting Transitions Involve Structural Redistribution of Interfacial Water
Tereza Schönfeldová, Paulina Piller1, Filip Kovacik
1Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Biophysics Division, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Humboldtstrasse 50/III, Graz 8010, Austria.
Abstract:
Morphological and gel-to-liquid phase transitions of lipid membranes are generally considered to primarily depend on the structural motifs in the hydrophobic core of the bilayer. Structural changes in the aqueous headgroup phase are typically not considered, primarily because they are difficult to quantify. Here, we investigate structural changes of the hydration shells around large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) in aqueous solution, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and temperature-dependent ζ-potential and high-throughput angle-resolved second harmonic scattering measurements (AR-SHS). Varying the lipid composition from 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine(DMPC) to 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphate (DMPA), to 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-l-serine (DMPS), we observe surprisingly distinct behavior for the different systems that depend on the chemical composition of the hydrated headgroups. These differences involve changes in hydration following temperature-induced counterion redistribution, or changes in hydration following headgroup reorientation and Stern layer compression.
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