Abstract
A recently discovered submain phase transition in multi-lamellar bilayers of long-chain saturated diacyl phosphatidylcholines (Jørgensen, K. (1995) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1240, 111–114) is discussed in terms of a theoretical molecular interaction model using computer simulation techniques. The model interprets the transition to be due to a decoupling of the acyl-chain melting from the melting of the pseudo-two-dimensional crystalline lattice of the P β′ phase. A two-stage melting process is predicted by the calculations suggesting that the sub-main transition involves a lattice melting whereas the acyl-chain melting takes place at a higher temperature at the main transition. The calculated heat contents of the two transitions as well as the chain-length dependence compare favorably with experimental data for multi-lamellar phosphatidylcholine lipid bilayers.
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