Abstract
The chapter describes the basic structure and design features of volume perturbation instrument, its operational characteristics, and report on the type of dynamic and thermodynamic information that are obtained. A novel volume-perturbation calorimeter is used to measure the kinetics of lipid phase transitions to obtain more information about the dynamics of membrane structure. The traditional methods used to determine kinetic parameters associated with systems at presumed equilibrium include perturbation techniques such as temperature and pressure variations or stop-flow methods which perturb the relative concentration of the various components. This instrument monitors the induced temperature and pressure changes as indicators of temporal changes in the equilibrium state of the system. This approach is based upon the large volume changes associated with the phase transition of model multilamellar and single lamellar vesicles made from neutral phospholipids. This chapter describes the design and operation of this kinetic calorimeter as it is used to obtain both thermodynamic and dynamic information about the membrane. Because the gel to liquid-crystalline transition of these phospholipid systems is easily detectable, it is used as a model to understand the temporal coupling between lipid fluctuations and protein fluctuations.
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