Orientational order in the choline headgroup of sphingomyelin: A 14N-NMR study

An aqueous dispersion of fully hydrated bovine sphingomyelin was studied using 14N-NMR spectroscopy. Spectra were obtained as a function of temperature over the range 15-80 degrees C, in both the liquid crystal and gel phases. In the liquid crystal phase, powder pattern lineshapes were obtained, whose quadrupolar splitting slowly decreases with increasing temperature. The spectra are increasingly broadened as the temperature is lowered through the phase transition into the gel phase. The linewidths and the second moments of these spectra indicate that the onset of a broad phase transition occurs at approx. 35 degrees C, in agreement with previous calorimetric and 31 P-NMR measurements. There is no evidence from the lineshapes for an hexagonal phase in this system, and this conclusion is supported by X-ray diffraction measurements carried out on aqueous dispersions of sphingomyelin in both phases. Assuming that the static nitrogen quadrupole coupling constant is the same for both sphingomyelin and dipalmitoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC), the decrease observed in the quadrupolar splitting of sphingomyelin compared to that of DPPC indicates that the orientational order of the choline headgroup in liquid crystalline sphingomyelin is not the same as that of its counterpart in DPPC. Preliminary relaxation time measurements of T1 and T2 are presented which suggest that there are also dynamic differences between sphingomyelin and DPPC in the choline headgroup.