Nonuniform lipid distribution in membranes

Abstract

The noniform lateral and transbilayer lipid arrangement existing in two-component lipid bilayers are reviewed. The lateral lipid organization is considered on the basis of the temperature-composition phase diagrams of the lipid binaries. A comparative analysis of the phase diagrams of synthetic phospholipid mixtures is carried out. The various types of the phase diagrams observed are set in a continuous row determined by the increase of the lipid lateral immiscibility. A special emphasis is laid on the appearance of peculiar points in the phase diagrams--triple, critical, and isoconcentration points. Two basic statistical-mechanical methods for simulation of phase diagrams--Bragg-Williams (regular solutions, mean field) and quasichemical--are compared. Stability criteria indicating the regions of lateral phase separation are also given. The main advantage of the quasichemical method is that it also allows the short-range order in the lipid arrangement to be determined. The physical interactions contributing to an equilibrium lipid asymmetry in mixed lipid bilayers are pointed out. The most important among them are: (i) electrostatic forces induced by differences in the membrane electric double layers; (ii) nonideal lateral mixing of the lipids; (iii) packing restrictions important in curved bilayers. A unified electrostatic model is presented to calculate the surface charge asymmetry created by any factors affecting the electric double layers of the bilayer (external electric potential, overlapping electric double layers in parallel membranes or in vescicles, etc.). The transmembrane asymmetry strongly depends on the degree of c corrections may increase up two-three times the asymmetry induced by factors of the order of 1–3 kT. A typical nonideality effect, which may be used in an experimental verification, is the appearance of an extremum in the dependence of the asymmetry on the mole fraction of the components. As previously shown in other reviews on membrane organization, the packing restrictions are of importance in highly curved bilayers, e.g., in small unilamellar vesicles. The experimental data on the asymmetry of two-component small unilamellar vesicles are summarized and some general conclusions are formulated. With a view toward the native membranes, some inferences are drawn about (i) the state of thermodynamic equilibrium and (ii) the lipid organization in multicomponent membranes.