Effect of sphingomyelin composition on the phase structure of phosphatidylcholine-sphingomyelin bilayers

In this study, we examine the phase behavior as well as lateral diffusion and percolation in the region of coexisting gel and fluid phases in binary mixtures composed of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and one of two totally synthetic D-erythro-sphingomyelins (having either C16 or C24 acyl chains, both having similar gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition temperatures). This study stems from the uniqueness of sphingomyelins having gel to liquid-crystalline transition temperatures in the range of physiological interest, and the fact that more than 50% of the naturally occurring sphingomyelin species have a chain mismatch. The presence of sphingomyelin in biological membranes can thus be expected to give rise to a complex phase structure. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, differential scanning calorimetry, and electron microscopy are used to show that, despite similarity in the temperature range of the gel to liquid-cystalline phase transition of the two sphingomyelins, the two differ in their phase structure. Also they differ to a large extent in their mixing with dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine. Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and C16 sphingomyelin mix nearly ideally, with the percolation threshold locus lying close to the liquidus on the phase diagram. In contrast, the C24 sphingomyelin and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine mix nonideally, with the percolation threshold locus lying close to the solidus. In addition, mixtures containing C24 sphingomyelin have a complex thermotropic behavior which may be related to the observation that these dispersions contain several types of particles, some of which are not multilamellar vesicles. These studies suggest that the degree of sphingomyelin chain mismatch is an important factor in determining lateral organization in the membrane.