Abstract
Phase transitions of lipid bilayer membranes should affect passive transport of molecules. While this hypothesis has been used to design drug-releasing thermosensitive liposomes, the effect has yet to be quantified. Herein, we use time-resolved second harmonic light scattering to measure transport of a molecular cation across membranes of unilamellar liposomes composed of the total lipid extract of E. coli from 9 °C to 36 °C, in which two distinct phase transitions (gel to liquid-disordered phase) have been identified. While the transport rate slowly increases with temperature as a diffusion process, dramatic jumps are observed at 14.7 °C and 27.6 °C, the known phase transitions. The transport rate constant measured as (7.3±0.8)×10-3 s-1 in the liquid-disordered phase at 36 °C is 35-times faster than (2.1±0.2)×10-4 s-1 of the gel phase at 9 °C. For the mixed-phase between these two phases, the measured rates are consistent with a structure of gel domains among a liquid-disordered bulk.
Published Version
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