Abstract
Glycolipids are amphiphilic molecules which bear an oligo- or polysaccharide as hydrophilic head group and hydrocarbon chains in varying numbers and lengths as hydrophobic part. They play an important role in life science as well as in material science. Their biological and physiological functions are quite diverse, ranging from mediators of cell-cell recognition processes, constituents of membrane domains or as membrane-forming units. Glycolipids form an exceptional class of liquid-crystal mesophases due to the fact that their self-organisation obeys more complex rules as compared to classical monophilic liquid-crystals. Like other amphiphiles, the supra-molecular structures formed by glycolipids are driven by their chemical structure; however, the details of this process are still hardly understood. Based on the synthesis of specific glycolipids with a clearly defined chemical structure, e.g., type and length of the sugar head group, acyl chain linkage, substitution pattern, hydrocarbon chain lengths and saturation, combined with a profound physico-chemical characterisation of the formed mesophases, the principles of the organisation in different aggregate structures of the glycolipids can be obtained. The importance of the observed and formed phases and their properties are discussed with respect to their biological and physiological relevance. The presented data describe briefly the strategies used for the synthesis of the used glycolipids. The main focus, however, lies on the thermotropic as well as lyotropic characterisation of the self-organised structures and formed phases based on physico-chemical and biophysical methods linked to their potential biological implications and relevance.
Highlights
General speaking, glycolipids are lipids containing carbohydrate
According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, glycolipids are defined as simple derivatives of lipids such as acylglycerols, ceramides, and prenols as well as glycosyl derivatives such as cerebrosides and gangliosides [1, 2]
What might be clear from the chapter above, additional transitions may take place, for example from a lamellar into an inverted phase such as cubic and hexagonal phase transition (HII), which is connected with much less enthalpy change, only 5 to 10 % of the main phase transition
Summary
Glycolipids are lipids containing carbohydrate. According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, glycolipids are defined as simple derivatives of lipids such as acylglycerols, ceramides, and prenols as well as glycosyl derivatives such as cerebrosides and gangliosides [1, 2]. The liquid-crystalline phase is a state of matter with properties known for a liquid and a solid crystal [5,6,7]. The phases formed by liquid-crystallines are denoted as a mesomorph state (mesophase). This state describes an organisational state with the molecular order being between. A liquid-crystalline compound is formed of a rigid moiety and one or more flexible molecule residue. The driving force for the formation of a mesophase of amphiphile molecules is a micro-phase separation This leads to an aggregate structure (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3) with separated regions for the lipophilic (hydrophobe) and hydrophilic (polar) moieties
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