ESR STUDIES OF PHASE STRUCTURES IN DSPC/POPC/CHOL AND DSPC/DOPC/CHOL MIXTURES

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. In biological membranes, when lo + ld phases coexist ("rafts"), the size of the domains seems to be much smaller than the wavelength of light, i.e. at least one dimension of size < 300 nm. In chemically-defined mixtures of SM/POPC/chol, or DSPC/POPC/chol, or DSPC/SOPC/chol, giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) appear uniform in fluorescence microscopy over the entire composition region where lipid rafts could occur. However, FRET and single dye fluorescence studies indicate phase separation at well-defined boundaries. By use of a spin-labeled phospholipid, "16-PC", we examine the hyperfine splitting of samples across the putative phase boundaries in DSPC/POPC/chol, and compare with the hyperfine splitting across phase boundaries in DSPC/DOPC/chol, where large phase domains are observed in GUVs.