Differential scanning calorimetric studies of the interaction of cholesterol with distearoyl and dielaidoyl molecular species of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylserine.

Abstract

We have carried out a comparative study of the effect of cholesterol on the thermotropic phase behavior of the distearoyl and dielaidoyl molecular species of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylserine using high-sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry. For both molecular species of phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol incorporation produces bimodal endotherms at lower and unimodal endotherms at higher sterol concentrations. In both cases, heating and cooling endotherms are identical, and high concentrations of cholesterol (50 mol %) completely abolish the gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition. For the distearoyl molecular species of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine, heating and cooling endotherms are not identical, and cholesterol exhibits a considerably reduced miscibility in the gel as compared to the liquid-crystalline phase, particularly in the latter case. Thus, in neither case does the addition of 50 mol % cholesterol completely abolish the cooperative hydrocarbon chain-melting phase transition. However, the dielaidoyl molecular species of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine exhibit much closer correspondence in the heating and cooling modes than do the distearoyl species, and 50 mol % cholesterol is sufficient to almost or completely abolish the gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition of dielaidoylphosphatidylethanolamine and dielaidoylphosphatidylserine. In general, there is an inverse correlation between the strength of intermolecular phospholipid-phospholipid interactions, as manifested by the relative gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition temperatures of the pure phospholipids, and the miscibility of cholesterol in bilayers, particularly gel-state bilayers, formed from these phospholipids. These results indicate that the nature of cholesterol-phospholipid interactions, and thus the miscibility of cholesterol in the bilayer, depends on both the structure of the phospholipid polar headgroup and the hydrocarbon chains, as well as on the temperature and phase state of the phospholipid bilayer.